Praise In The Work Place...

So today, I was in the cafeteria with the students for gym class. Our cafeteria is connected to a small kitchenette for staff to use. As I was standing in the kitchenette observing our students, a teacher walked into the kitchenette to load the dishwasher, and just looked frazzled. Her students were arguing behind her as to who gets to help her load the dishwasher and she was trying to explain to them who was going to do what, but they just weren't listening. They walked back in their classroom and started to pout as the teacher finished loading the dishwasher. We made eye contact and I just said "You're gorgeous! You're wonderful! You're an AMAZING teacher!" and we started to laugh and then she returned to her room. That was that.

At the end of the day today I walked into the room where everyone had gathered to let everyone know I was leaving and that specific teacher said "Hey, I just really wanted to say thank you for today. You're so positive and encouraging and it really did help me get through the day." I just laughed and reassured her I was glad I could help brighten her day when another coworker said "No, it really is refreshing to have someone like you here. You have helped me so much lately!" and another said "You are always so positive and make us all laugh on even the worst days!". This made me feel SOOOO good! In my previous job, I was always so stressed out and so tired, that I was the Negative Nancy of the group. I was the pessimistic one always waiting for something to go wrong and not having much positivity to share with my co-workers. I never realized how draining this was for not only myself but for others. 

I think there are a lot of contributing factors to this current mindset of wonderfulness.
1.) I'm new. I'm still on the "honeymoon" period where I haven't quite settled into my ways yet.
2.) The book I'm reading "Unglued" by Lysa Terkeurst, helping me to realize what my emotions are and how to handle them appropriately.
3.) I enjoy working where I work. I enjoy doing all the things required of me in a day. I enjoy working with the students I get to work with. I enjoy the company of my coworkers and I respect their opinions and values. 
4.) I want to be a happier person. I want to be that person that can help anyone out when they are in a slump. I want to be the person who helps build team morale and motivate my co-workers. I've experienced working in an environment where everyone dislikes each others, gossips, and fails to work as a team. It doesn't work.

After hearing all those wonderful things said to me, I am only going to try to get even better at this. When I get frustrated instead of just "venting" to a coworker of nothing but negatives, I'm going to identify more positives than negatives in any situation. I am going to encourage my peers to see positive qualities in one another and compliment one another on those qualities. Something farther down the road would be to encourage one another to give constructive criticism and feedback. Not to tear one another apart but to build each other up and to help us all grow in our professions. This last one would be WAY farther down the road and something I wouldn't really initiate but go to my Director and see if there is a "Team Reflection" we could start as a whole. 

That's my good news for the day! Hopefully it motivates some other people in the workplace to maybe take a different approach to things. 

This is the happy dance I wanted to do when I realized with this new job, everything is gonna be OK. I just have to stay positive!