Are there people at work or in your life who spread gossip, cause trouble, or complain?

Perhaps it’s subtle digs they work into conversations, bragging that they’ve booked dozens of speaking opportunities or landed a coveted new client.

Or perhaps it’s direct, telling you, “You’re not being treated right,” “Everyone seems to get promoted except you,” or “You should be making more money than they pay you.”

People who sow discontentment can make you bitter. More importantly, listening to these people can lead to focusing on the wrong things – what you don’t have rather than what you do have.

It’s important that you consider the company you keep. Coworkers, friends, or family members who bring you down are not interested in your success.

When people plant seeds of discontentment, they aren’t serving you – they’re serving themselves. Most likely, they have issues they’re not dealing with. Perhaps they’re jealous of your success, they’ve been hurt and they don’t want to see it happen to you, or they’re mad at themselves for mistakes they’ve made.

How do I know what motivates them? Successful people are too busy to stir up trouble. Secure people are too busy helping others to waste time gossiping behind their backs. Grateful people are so focused on what they have, they don’t find fault with what they don’t have.

Regardless of what causes the people around you to poison the well, you must be careful who you let influence you if you want to achieve the success you have planned for yourself.

Your time is too valuable to let others fill it with their negativity. That might mean you are faced with difficult choices, such as turning down event invitations because you know the crowd will spend their time sniping one another instead of building each other up. If that feels like too big a sacrifice, remember that if you attend, you’re investing your time and money in negativity.

Be kind, but ignore the coworkers who badmouth the boss. Be respectful, but don’t pay attention to family members who cause division. Be friendly, but don’t hang out with friends who leave you feeling stressed.

You become like the people you spend your time with. Their qualities rub off on you. Make sure you’re surrounding yourself with people you admire.

You might think, “But they’re right. They’ve brought up good reasons to complain about the boss. I’m not getting a fair shake. And I deserve better.”

That might be true. But the question you have to ask yourself is… Does their negativity benefit you? Does it serve a purpose? Does it make your life or your career better in any way?

If all their discord does is bring down your opinion of your circumstances, then don’t allow yourself to be a part of it.

If we allow negative people get us all riled up, our work product suffers, our professional relationships suffer, and our quality of life suffers.

Comparison will always do that, whether we do it to ourselves or we allow others to do it for us. If you compare your business or your career or your life to someone else’s, it’s easy to feel like you’re at a disadvantage.

But the optimist’s way of looking at it is that somebody always has it worse than you do. Someone would gladly take the revenue numbers you don’t think are good enough or the speaking opportunities you don’t think are high-profile enough.

When it comes to comparison, don’t take the bait.

Instead, focus on what you have. Tell yourself, “I’m grateful for the opportunities that come my way,” “I’m blessed to have a job,” and “I’m glad I can keep improving.”

And if there’s something you’re not happy with, take the initiative and change it. If it’s not within your power to change it, don’t go complaining to every ear that will listen. The right thing to do is to express your concern to the people who can change it with constructive ideas for how to improve.

You can’t stop people from sowing discord, but you can stop it from becoming a part of your life. You’ve got too much to achieve to get caught up in gossip, division, and derision.

Stay positive, consider the source, and be the change you wish to see.

At Celeste Giordano Coaching, I coach my clients in the most important strategies for success in business, as well as getting more satisfaction out of life in general, so that all of your hard work will truly pay off in making your life better. If you want to become a master at sales and improve your quality of life in the process, contact me today.

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Celeste Giordano’s mission is to help business owners develop the skills, knowledge and attitude necessary to “DoublePlus^TM” their income and become effective and inspirational leaders in their fields. Whether it’s taking your successful business to the next level or starting a new venture, she will teach you the exact skills and strategies you need to enroll more quality prospects, build a rock-solid team, and break through obstacles to achieve real profit and lasting success. Celeste is a professional business growth specialist, a master sales strategist, and dynamic speaker with 40 years experience in direct sales and managing high-performing teams.

To learn more about Celeste, click here.

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At Celeste Giordano Coaching, I work with each client to implement the strategies they’ve been missing that will enable them to break through barriers preventing them from the success they know they are capable of. Contact me today to find your future clients who just don’t know what they’re missing.