Improve Your Well-Being: Buckets, Drains & Radiators
Many people in search of happiness fail to realise that the people we surround ourselves with in life have a huge bearing on our lives and on our perspective on the world and life in general.
Today I hope to share with you a very effective method I use to make every single day as positive as possible.
Pick up your own bucket.
Each day I awake and I imagine the new day brings with it a big shiny bucket filled with positive energy. Whatever happens during the day can empty a little from my energy bucket or top it up depending on whether the event is positive or negative.
If I can keep the bucket topped up I will have a great day where I have feelings of achievement and contentment and I will end the day with a positive feeling of happiness and success – like I’m winning at this game called life.
Conversely, if I allow events to completely drain my energy bucket the day will prove to be a negative, depressing hard slog where I finish it by flopping onto my bed feeling defeated, exhausted and unhappy – not a good place to be.
So how can you help keep your own magic energy bucket as full as possible during even the most trying of days?
Ask any financially successful business person and they’ll agree that it helps to be a successful person in business when you surround yourself with successful business people and rarely take advice from or become involved with someone who has not succeed in their chosen field.
Therefore, if you want to live a happy and positive life you should surround yourself with happy and positive people and avoid negative influences wherever possible.
Here’s where the ‘drains and radiators’ analogy comes in.
In life there are two distinct types of person:
1: Drains
Drains are those people who drain all the positive energy from your life and suck the goodness from everything you experience.
They are can find the clouds for any silver lining and when they leave the room they leave you feeling deflated and exhausted by the burden of the negative weight they have placed onto your shoulders.
Drains are toxic people and can prevent you finding the happiness you seek.
2: Radiators
Radiators radiate positive energy and when they enter a room it suddenly becomes a little but warmer and brighter.
The spread a feeling of positivity within you and your perspective o f the world is usually left that little bit brighter.
Radiators are wonderful people and you should seek them out wherever possible.
How to spot a drain and a radiator.
You can probably already spot the drains and radiators in your own life but in case you can’t here’s a simple example of typical drain and radiator behaviour;
Imagine you have just bought a new coat and excitedly show it to someone and express your delight in your purchase.
The Drain:
A drain will side-step your pleasure and ask how much you paid. They’ll then loudly suck in their breath, shake their head and actually enjoy going on to tell you that there is a store right around the corner where you could have bought it for less.
This drains a little piece of happiness from your bucket while giving the drain a little bit of satisfaction from taking the shine off your purchase.
The Radiator:
Even if the radiator is aware you may have paid a little too much for your coat they wouldn’t dream of mentioning this negative and irrelevant point. In any case they can see you are happy so a radiator will go on to enforce for feelings of happiness by sharing a smile and saying how nice the coat is and how wonderfully it suits you.
This is a win-win situation because the radiator fells good about making you feel good and you feel great being told your new purchase was indeed a great idea.
Fill your life with radiators to keep your bucket full.
In life we all like to stay close to warm welcoming radiators and stay away from dirty, smelly drains so surround yourself with those people who are radiators and avoid those drains as much as you possibly can, you’ll see a vast improvement in your outlook in life and a boost to your happiness in general.
Drains can become radiators – sometimes.
If you know someone who is a radiator you should stay away from them. If they are someone in your close circle it may be worth letting them know that sometimes their negativity brings you down and suggest they might try being more positive while around you.
If they listen and do so it will help bring some happiness into their own life but if they don’t then you should keep contact with them to a minimum and stay away while they are in a negative frame of mind.
If you remember the bucket, radiators and drains you will see your life becoming much, much better and understand how other people’s behaviours can affect your own happiness and well-being.
Keep topping-up your bucket!
© Colin Lawson Books
