Just about every single day of my life I have someone trying to tear me down. My life is semi public do to the nature of coaching high level athletes and running a gym in a very competitive market. The negativity comes with the territory.
Why am I bringing this up? Because we all have to deal with shade being thrown from time to time. How we choose to respond is what I am really reflecting on. Negativity is super easy while taking the high road requires discipline, self respect and a healthy does of empathy towards the troubled people that feel the need to attack others.
I struggle daily with how to respond to hate. Part of me wants to crush these people in a way that makes them think for the rest of their lives that anything bad that happens is because of me. I also don’t want to lower myself to the level that hate comes from. I really want to stay above and keep doing good things.
Sometimes people call us on our actual mistakes or shortcomings. Most times, people are fabricating things because they want what you have and can’t have it because they are not doing what you are oding or have the skills you do. The super sad people are the ones that have more than you do but still feel the need to attack because they can’t be happy no matter what they have.
In time I have been able to temper myself with the reality that anything that distracts me from being present when spending time with my wife and kids or stops me from doing what I need to do each given day to run my business, is not worth my time, energy, or thoughts. If someone does or says something that hurts my ability to take care of my family or run my business, that is a different situation.
So much is simply not worth my time. I have really good people around me doing great things. This is where the focus needs to remain. Let the haters hate because all they do is expose themselves as weak and petty over time. Be glad you don’t have to feel the way these haters do and keep doing the good things because our actions will always drown the negative chatter.
Brian Wright