Are you a Bad News Reporter or a Good News Reporter?

I’m not the first one to say this, but I use it as an example. When you watch the news, the beginning of the broadcast and the end of the broadcast before they go to commercial is usually bookmarked by something like this, “A shooting leaves 1 person dead, and three injured” or “A car crash leaves a family of four in critical condition” and maybe even “police are still looking for a suspect who they say is responsible for a series of (fill in the blank)”. We are bombarded with information, and a lot of the time it is bad news because bad news is somehow more entertaining to watch. I don’t mean entertaining in a good way, rather it grabs the attention of the viewer to sit through commercial for the rest of the story more than, “A husband and wife that were previously considering divorce have repaired the relationship and are now celebrating fifteen years of marriage”. We’re happy for them, but we’re not coming back after the commercial for details, although we should.

 

So most of the news we see is bad news. And when all you see is bad news, bad news just becomes news and we’re not even aware of it. And if you are not careful, that becomes all that you think about and talk about until your entire day is a bad news reel. If this sounds familiar, you (and I) need to work on going from being a bad news reporter to a good news reporter.

 

If when the alarm goes off in the morning, you say, “Oh no, not yet. It’s too early. I don’t want to get up yet”, don’t be surprised when you don’t want to get up. If when you’re getting ready to go to work, you say, “I don’t feel like going to work. I’m tired of these people. They get on my nerves. They always pass on me for the promotion. It’s so unfair”, don’t be surprised when you have no desire to go to work and don’t enjoy your time there. If when you get in the car to go to or leave from work, you say, “Here we go again. This traffic sucks. It’s getting worse. These people can’t drive. It’s never going to get better” you guessed it, don’t be surprised when it doesn’t get better.

 

And if you aren’t careful, your entire day was framed as bad news. And if it turns into a pattern, a bad day is a bad week quickly, then a bad month, and a bad year after that.

 

It’s easy to be a bad news reporter because so many people are doing it, and it just seems normal. It seems out of the ordinary to report the good news, to focus and magnify the good that’s happening.

 

If you wake up in the morning, you’re alive. And we all know someone who is not here anymore. If you’re preparing to go to work, you have a job. And we all know someone who does not. If you’re in traffic, it means you probably have a car of some sort, and we all know someone who does not. There is so much good news out there, but it gets overshadowed by the bad news.

 

You can choose how you live by how you see the world. If you see the world as getting crazier by the second, World War 3 about to break out any minute, everything is so expensive, my sciatic nerve is getting worse, and my spouse/significant other is getting on my last nerve; don’t be surprised when things don’t go well. I’m not saying that all you need to do is talk differently. It’s going to take actual work, but I believe it starts with how you talk. Your words are an indicator of your beliefs, and from those you take action. Start hearing your mind to take action based on good news instead of bad. You can either live in a bad bubble or a good bubble.