Saturday, April 3, 2010

Seek and You Will Find

"Some people find fault like it was buried treasure." Francis O'Walsh

The naysayer, the criticizer, the negative person, seems to delight in finding what's wrong in any person. The truth is, even the most angelic of people will have faults and failures. You don't have to look long or hard to find them.

If you seek the good in people, you might be pleasantly surprised at what you find. For everyone has some redeeming quality, some goodness in them. Seeking the good in others puts you in a very positive frame of mind, and if you have a somewhat cynical view of the human race, it can turn that around. It is a happy habit to cultivate.

Elementary school teachers sometimes work at "catching" their students being good, praising them and letting parents know the child got caught being good. It builds self-esteem, and has the added bonus of improved behavior. What works with children often works with adults. Why not start trying to catch people being good, kind, generous, funny, wonderful? For someone who has had little praise in their lives, your genuine recognition of the good in them (not flattery, by the way) may make a big difference in their world.

Susan

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