Your Mindset Matters – Posting Positive Messages Helps

Brian Basilico — April 5, 2020

Let me start off by saying I’m the farthest thing from a mindset coach. I do have a mindset coach. She helps keep me stay positive and focused on the right direction. One of the things that I do on a regular basis on social media to spread positive messages is a “Quote of the Day” in the morning and I do a caption contest at night.

I try to do something very positive and then I try to do something fun later on in the day. One of the quotes I recently put up goes like this: “If we view ourselves as besieged victims who need to go into hiding, we cultivate fear in hoarding. But if we view ourselves as a community working hard to protect the most vulnerable among us, then we will cultivate courage and helping.”

You see… mindset matters. And I’ve got some proof of that. That one quote on Facebook had over a 100 likes, tons of comments and over 40 shares. People like positive messages, especially during this time.

It’s a Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

There’s a famous quote by Mr. Rogers and it goes like this: “When I was a boy, I would see scary things in the news. My mother would say, ‘Look for the helpers, you’ll always find people who are helping.’”

In 2018, the Atlantic Magazine posted an online article entitled The Fetishization of Mr. Rogers’ Look for the helpers. Turning the reassuring line for children into a meme for adults should make everyone uncomfortable. Obviously, no matter what you do, it can be turned into good or not so good. It’s all about how you look at things.

Glass With Water

I’m sure you’ve heard of the metaphor of how some people see the glass as half empty and others see it half full. My take on it is I’m just damn happy to have a glass. No matter what’s going on in your world, you can have a positive attitude about things as much as possible. Yes, there are stories about people dying or getting sick. One of my friend’s husband just had a heart attack. So far, the news has been positive, but in this environment, she couldn’t go to see him personally. We’re living in different and difficult times.

Here’s what I want you to do – I don’t want you to get down about things. I don’t want you to withdraw or sink into negative conversations. I want you to think of ways that you can create positive messages to share with your audience. People are hypersensitive right now, even positive posts are getting hijacked and turned into arguments or talking points.

The key thing you have to do is not only put those positive messages out there, but you have to monitor them and you have to make sure that you’re managing the comments and managing the message. You have to take charge of what you say and what other people have to say about it.

What You Can Do?

What I want to offer you are three things that you can do to create those positive messages even if you’re struggling to be positive all the time. You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how you think about it. And, you certainly can control how you communicate about it. Here’s three things that I want to offer you as opportunities to be the helper, to be that positive message and that voice out there.

Pick A Lane

The first thing I suggest you do is to pick a lane. Pick one thing and be consistent about it. Try to stay on task with one set of messages rather than varying from place to place. Consistency counts. For example, I do the “Quote of the Day.” I try really hard to find very positive messages that are not going to create negative impacts. And sometimes, I post some positive quips.

Leadership, especially here in the state of Illinois and in New York, has been impressive. It seems like they’re communicating and trying to be positive. I posted a quote by one of them on Facebook. I’m not going to get into the exact quote, but it was just a positive, uplifting message about how we together can all get through this.

Because the person is a politician, people started steering it in a different direction. They literally started to hijack the post and talk about negative things about certain people and negative things about somebody else. I had to jump in and make sure I stopped that and get back to the core of what I was trying to say. That was to stay upbeat and try to remain positive.

Make It Fun

The next thing you can do is keep it light. It’s good to have some fun but you have to be careful because humor is always in the eye of the beholder. I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom meetings lately and a lot of people are getting on Zoom for the first time. In one particular video somebody shared with me a woman picked up her laptop, walked down the hall, put it down and went to the bathroom and unfortunately, her camera was still on and it showed her going to the bathroom. It didn’t show anything nasty, but it was pretty funny.

Again, people look at this like you’re shaming somebody. They ask, how could you do that? What I intended was to offer some things not to do in a Zoom meeting and people started to spin that the other way. The bottom line is, I kept it up there and I said, “Hey, this is all about things you should not do. And sometimes, you just don’t think about it. What you can do is turn off your camera and you could still carry your laptop and do what you have to do, but make sure you mute the mic too because people can hear you flush.” The point is you have humor, you may have to defend it, but keep that lane going. I was just trying to be helpful with Zoom meetings.

Be The Helper

The next one is to be the helper that people are looking for. Help them find things that they need. There’s a group that I joined which was about getting help for businesses that were struggling with loans and resources in our state. I’m trying to focus on making sure I can share the things that are going to help people. The bottom line is, I want to help them focus on what they can control, help them with their routines, and help them solve problems.

The whole core of what I’m trying to do is keep the messages positive and helpful, show people that I’ve been in business for over 40 years. I’ve been there and done that. I can help them. What can you bring to the table in your industry to help people overcome some of the challenges that they’re having right now?

Final Thoughts

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about the best ways to stay safe, positive, and helpful during times of crisis. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to your expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?

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