Thank Goodness It's Monday #394

PLOM OUTBREAK DETECTED!

AND HAND SANITIZER WON’T PROTECT YOU

 

How are you? The question’s been plaguing (intentional word choice) my thinking recently.

It originates, of course, with the still-present “flu” that’s beset many quite seriously this year. 

 

That’s not over yet and, worse, it’s newly coupled with a nasty stomach-turning, hand-sanitizer-resistant norovirus (dubbed G11.4 Sydney because it was first identified in Sydney, Australia).

 

Concern about contracting some contagious malady did click up a notch or two for me recently having spent some time handshaking and close talking among tens of thousands of visitors and exhibitors at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in the crossroads of the world, Manhattan.

But NOT the flu or “Sydney” in particular.

Something, perhaps –

 

More devastating in its way. At the Javits Center I detected a little-reported outbreak of a malady that may be as pernicious as the communicable health bugs spreading among the attendees.

 

TGIM EPIDEMIC ALERT: To inform you about this outbreak, and to share how to safely immunize yourself and those you care about from this scourge, let me state the case for you here --

 

PLOM runs rampant in New York!

 

As I worked my way from exhibitor to exhibitor Javits I found an almost universal trace of PLOM in the folks I talked with.

 

You could see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices. Virtually every one exhibited the telltale signs and behaviors of infection. And since the folks I met came from around the nation and the world, I think we can conclude the contagion is global! 

While PLOM is not a new disease, the particular strain I encountered seems to have evolved into something virulent and its contagious aspects threaten even previously immune and robust individuals.

 

With my usual dedication to bringing you the facts, I’ve been digging to find the origins of PLOM. And here’s what I’ve come up with including remedies that   can still counter the dread disease, if you’re willing to apply them.

First, let’s spell out the basics.

 

PLOM stands for

“Poor Little Old Me” disease

A mentor of mine I’ve mentioned before in TGIM, John Beckley, (fondly referred to as Mr. B.) founder of The Economics Press and longtime publisher of business-skills training and motivation and inspirational material, first made me aware of the childhood form of the disease. 

He told the story this way:

Years ago, when a childhood friend of ours was in a foul mood, and complaining bitterly about almost everything, her mother would, sooner or later, interrupt the proceedings.

“Melinda,” she would say. “It seems to me that you’ve got a bad case of PLOM.” 

Then she would send Melinda to her room with a paper and pencil to write down a list of things she ought to be thankful for. 

When the list was long enough – and when her “Poor Little Old Me” attitude improved enough to satisfy her mother – Melinda would be allowed to rejoin the group.

The conclusion that Mr. B reached: We all, adults as well as children, occasionally --

OVER-emphasize the BAD side of things

and

UNDER-emphasize the GOOD

Certainly some folks more than others. Yet the fact is we all have things to be thankful for. 

It’s also a fact that, practically no matter what the situation –

It could be worse. So if we do for ourselves what Melinda’s mother enforced for her, we should get a better perspective on things.

Helen Keller, who certainly knew adversity, counseled: “Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.”

Now, about the PLOM epidemic sweeping through Javits Center:

I hear you. It’s been a rough couple years – maybe longer.

No doubt “The Business” … “The Economy” … “The Politicians” … maybe even “Life” … have dealt you a bad hand.

 

Perhaps you’ve lost customers, money, family or health.

I get it. Everybody can find it gratifying to wallow in a little self-pity. It gives some kind of pleasure to remind ourselves how terrible the world is … how we’ve not been given the right opportunities … how people are against us … how life has been a real struggle. 

I sympathize. No doubt you (and I) have had undeserved blows and missed out on many opportunities.

But here’s an axiomatic –

Secret to Happiness:

Don’t believe everything you think.

Yes, you’ve got reasons to think that fate really HAS been unfair to you. 

But feeling sorry for yourself and whining about it is not going to help the situation. 

Poor Little Old Me thinking, and behaving like a victim, only sinks you deeper into the quicksand of apathy.

Think about this: It’s not what happens to you; it’s how you handle what happens to you that makes more of a difference in your life.

Q: Are you really the kind of person who can’t do anything about the things that happen to you?

If you’ve read this far, I doubt it. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and actually GO and DO something about it.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Turn your attention to the things you really appreciate:

►   Favorite daily moments

►   Interesting ideas

►   Attractive sights

►   Stimulating experiences

►   Funny incidents

►   People who brighten your day

 

Think about these things. Write them down. And appreciate all of the stuff that you can appreciate.

 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Here are a few more PLOM-countering suggestions to help you combat the dread disease and maybe even inoculate yourself with happiness and joy so a more “healthy” mindset becomes the dominant factor in your daily routine and life.

·         Let the future be the future and the past be the past. Live in the “now” as much as you’re able.

·         Focus and work hardest on your own life and your own path forward.

·         Let go of judgment, resentment, criticism, blame.

·         Let others have their own experiences and lessons.

·         Take a personal inventory. Would you exchange your work … your eyes … your freedom … the people you love … the people that love you … for things to be better? Define “better.”

·         There is always someone else worse off. Practice random acts of kindness. Or not-so-random. Give of yourself to someone whose need is greater.

·         Make some time just for you. Step back. Get “quiet.” Go within. Pray or meditate. Listen to what some might call “your higher self” wants and needs.

·         Do the Melinda’s-Mom Drill. Make a list of something/someone you are thankful for. You don’t have to stay in your room until you’re called. Start with one person and one thing you are grateful for each day and build on that.

·         Add your new-and-improved PLOM-resistant attitude to the items on your list.

There. That makes me feel better about the lousy time stuck in Javits with all those whiny people.

Just joking. In fact I thank them for bringing these TGIM strategies back to top-of-mind awareness for me. 

See. It works.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

 

P.S. Essayist and philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) noted: How much our happiness depends upon our spirits, and these again upon our state of health, may be seen by comparing the influence which the same external circumstances or events have upon us when we are well and strong with the effects which they have when we are depressed and troubled with ill-health. It is not what things are objectively and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or the reverse. As Epictetus [first century Greek sage and Stoic philosopher, born a slave] says, “Men are not influenced by things, but by their thoughts about things.”