Can We Do Anything Positive for Negative People?

Cartoon by Mike Lynch

Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest. — Sri Chinmoy

There are people in my life, that have a smile on their face, or if not on their face at that moment, then that smile is close to the surface, no matter what. I really mean, no matter what. It is easy to be friends with them, to hang out, to have fun together. These are positive people. On the other hand, there are people that I would love to have more of in my life, but instead I carefully limit the time that I give to them. These are the negative people. They may be people who can be positive only occasionally, or only for a short time, or with great effort, or only in the company of strangers, but eventually their negativity breaks through.

• Positive people encourage, inspire, motivate.
• Negative people discourage, deflate, demotivate.

I have found that negative people tend to be self-centered and narcissistic. They lack empathy, they lack inquisitiveness, they are the people that are not interested in anyone but themselves. A conversation with them is often one-sided, they talk, you listen. When you speak, they interrupt, get distracted. In their hurry to get talking again, they don’t really listen to what you have to say; they don’t consider the…