It’s Time to Make LEMONADE
By: Greg Winkler
We cannot turn on the evening news or scan our social media without a bombardment of information about Covid 19. The flood of communication can be overwhelming. As the death toll continues to climb, and we see reports of people disregarding the CDC recommendations, it is easy to feel hopeless and scared for our country. We watch news reports where armed citizens are protesting on the steps of our state capitals, and we scratch our heads in disbelief. What is happening? Where is the leadership we need?
Maybe it is time to unplug from your social media. It is essential to follow the news but only look to trusted sources, and when you hear a claim that just doesn’t sound right, fact check it. If you don’t step away from the noise, it is easy to fall into a rabbit hole of despair. I know many people that are struggling right now, financially, emotionally, and motivationally. What is the answer? How do we pull ourselves out of this funk that the virus has put us in?
We have to change our mindset. A former colleague of mine, Brian Skortz, currently an athletic director at Brescia University in Kentucky, would always say, “turn your negative into a positive.”
The situation he was dealing with did not matter; those were always the first words out of his mouth. If you incorporate a mindset of positivity and gratitude, that mindset can be your guide to making any situation better. When life gives you lemons — make lemonade!
Now, to be clear, I did not say changing your attitude was going to be easy. You have to train yourself to look at things in a different light. You may be making a paradigm shift, a fundamental change in your approach. You will be rewiring your brain. Start each morning thinking about all the things you are grateful for: a place to sleep, your family, your job, your unemployment check, the beautiful day, all of your blessings.
Then before going to sleep at night, think of the best things that happened that day. My wife is keeping a journal every night during this pandemic. As the days go by, she writes down all of the things we accomplished during the day. Some nights, our only accomplishment is that we binged watched a Netflix series. This practice keeps her aware that as we stay in our home, we are still doing something.
As you start to fill your mornings with gratitude and your evenings with accomplishments, the chemistry in your brain starts to change. You begin to see the lemonade instead of the lemon.
Think about the people you interact with, whether it is a colleague at work or just someone in the neighborhood. If they are cynical and grumpy all of the time, how do you react? When someone has a lemon personality, they can sour everyone around them. I find myself making a jovial comment and then moving along. I will not allow myself to sour. When I initiate conversations with lemons, I bring an optimistic attitude and demeanor. I try to put a positive “squeeze” on them to get a little lemonade hopefully.
My challenge to you is to use this time, when things are not typical, to change your perspective, to alter your attitude. Take a little time to self-reflect, how can you reinvent yourself? What can you change to be more positive at work? What can you do with your family to help make this strange time more tolerable, more fun, or more hopeful?
You can become a better person. You can put yourself through the strainer and create a better you. You can go from being sour to that refreshingly cool glass of lemonade. From now on, whenever a challenge or setback tries to block your path, take a moment to ask the question, “How can I take this negative and turn it into a positive?”
Greg Winkler is the author of Coaching a Season of Significance, Meyer & Meyer Publishing. Greg and his wife Vikki collaborated on the book, Welcome to Florida (WTF), Newman Springs Publishing. Greg has a new book, releasing this fall, The Transformational Coach, Meyer & Meyer.
