48 Laws of Power - Law 10 - Infection: Avoid the unhappy and unlucky - You can die from someone else's misery—emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.
If you’re happy and you know it...
I felt that it was important to start this article with an excerpt from: The 48 Laws of Power (You can listen to the chapter from the audiobook by clicking on the link). This law talks about how unhappy and unlucky people can bring you down if you spend too much time around them.
People that worry all the time or are always unhappy usually never make the best use of their imaginative faculty. Instead of using their imaginative faculty to come up with solutions that will make themselves happier, they tend to use their imagination to come up with more things to worry about. And this is why it is best to strategically plan how much time you spend such people.
I can remember my last couple of months working a 9-5. I had just received my real estate license and I was on the hunt for investors and partners. While searching for my future partners, I learned how negative some people could be.
There I was, newly licensed and full of positive energy; I was talking to almost everybody about the possibilities of what could be if we teamed up and worked together in the real estate business. Although I did get some verbal support, most of the feedback that I received was negative and DEPRESSING!
How would I ever be able to keep this positive energy of mine on 100? The answer came in a very unexpected way. You see, each morning I would pray and meditate before work. I would meditate on answers and solutions; I would also visualize myself doing more than what I was currently doing. Then one day I was called into the office and was told that I’d be getting laid off.
At first I was bummed out (for a couple of hours) and then I started IMAGINING about how much time I’d have to INVEST into my new career. Most importantly, I would have more time to find WINNERS to work with!
Today I’m not doing all of the things that I would IMAGINE myself doing, however, I am doing a lot of what I imagined. Back then I wouldn’t IMAGINE all of the obstacles that would get in my way, but I’ve always IMAGINED that I would overcome ANY obstacle that would get in my way!
Throughout the process of overcoming obstacles, I had to understand that relationships with certain people were obstacles. I had to learn who needed to be completely cut off and who I needed to spend less time with. I had to learn who I could share my dreams with and who I couldn’t share my dreams with.
My old broker used to say “If you’re not helping me, you’re hurting me”. I learned that help doesn’t always come in the form of some type of action or money. Sometimes the best help that someone can give to another is their silence. If someone doesn’t believe in another person’s dreams, unless asked, they should simply shut up and let that person do their thing if they’re not able to offer any constructive criticism.
Unhappy people want to destroy your imagination; don’t let them.
~Matthew