Sunday, August 17, 2008

Day 217 and Enthusiasm Vampires

Another thing that Denise Ryan spoke about at that conference a couple of weeks ago was "enthusiasm vampires", which is basically people who have negative reactions to all ideas. You know the person, the one who has a negative comment to make about every idea you ever had. I've known several of those and sadly, I think I've been one several times, too. Denise thinks you should distance yourself from those people when possible and shut their voices out of your life. How can you do that when the voice is your own? I guess that goes back to the self talk I was talking about yesterday. You have to change that voice, teach it a new line. What about if the voice is a spouse or another family member? One idea that Denise shared was to point at them with two fingers in the shape of a "v". They would have no idea what you meant, but you would be aware of what they were doing which helps make you able to resist it. As with anything else, I think just becoming more aware of it in yourself and in others helps a lot.

I looked up the two textbooks that I wanted to list on half.com tonight and they are both down to 75 and 80 cents. I"m not sure what I"ll do now. That hardly seems worth the trouble. I'll think about it and decide what to do with them.

2 comments:

Mom Thumb said...

I know some enthusiasm vampires. What's worse is people who make a comment that, on the surface, sounds nice, but when you think about it, it's a put down. Passive aggressive, I guess. Maybe they are more like enthusiasm mosquitoes.

KiddoKare1 said...

Mosquitoes. That's funny! There's also probably enthusiasm gnats. They buzz around your head driving you crazy, but don't usually bite. LOL.