I’m sorry to hear about your difficult working situation. It must be very hard for you. As you are the boss you are in a good position to change things without hiring new staff.

I’ve just finished reading a book called ‘It Takes What It Takes’ by Trevor Moawad. It tells of his experiences in the US as high stakes soccer and American football coach.

He joined a mid-level American football team and decided to start his coaching program by advising all the 120 players and coaching staff not to say anything negative out loud. Of course, he did other things as well but this is how he started. It was a simple task that everyone could understand and easily apply. From this starting point, the team went on to win five national titles.

He called negative talk ‘stinkin’ thinkin’. I know he wasn’t the first to coin this phrase and there are even pop songs with that title.

I spoke with my family about this concept and now ‘Daddy that’s stinkin’ thinkin’ is a phrase that often comes my way. Now we all try hard to find the positive and not dwell on things when they don’t go the way we expect them to. We try hard never to say anything negative about another person or our situation. Slowly, we are removing negativity from our lives. Try this as a starting point in your practice.