It didn’t take long. The perfect antidote for enjoying my last two weeks at work showed up. I went from being on fire at work, ready to take on any projects, to grinding to a halt after a single, toxic conversation.

The culprit? One of my Imperial Officers (managers) got to me. He is known to have a negative slant, a natural talent for finding the worst in every situation. Though I know his game, his negativity was like throwing a wet blanket over the room. One conversation with him, just one, and my positive feelings vanished faster than a Wookiee loses his vanity when he goes through  premature balding. 

It was a swift, total loss of positive momentum of my last two weeks. It’s amazing how one person’s mood can affect your own. Mood truly is like an invisible current or virus. A light, cheery person can lift you up in an instant, a burst of sunshine. But a depressed, angry individual can just as quickly reverse it, pulling you down into their emotional swamp. It’s a powerful, almost subconscious transfer of energy

The Lesson: Don’t Be a Depress-a-bacca

The big lesson is: don’t be that guy. That guy who always points out the negative. The guy that says, “Yeah, but…” after every good idea. That guy who has given up, content to simply sit in the shadows and complain, unwilling to even try to find a silver lining. He’s miserable, often loud about it, and seems determined to bring everyone else down with his constant pessimism. He can’t wait to prick the balloon and spoil the mood for others, reveling in the pop of joy’s demise.

You know who they are. We all have them in our social circle. They are depressing, the one who communicates only in complaints and can drain all the positive energy from a room. The atmosphere they create is genuinely contagious, spreading like a bad cold.

It’s incredible how easy it is for sustained happiness to be taken away. It takes a lot of effort to build up a joyful, productive state of mind, but it can be destroyed so easily. A single, hour-long conversation where I was arguing the bright positive side versus someone arguing the negative side, and the rest of my day was shot. More importantly, my two-week stretch of good mood just vanished as he reminded me how bad some parts of work are. I felt the familiar pull of the Dark Side.

The Recovery

My day basically ended at noon. I logged off the computer and went into cruise control, but there was a good thing to come from this: I recognized the change. Before, I might have missed the mood shift and what caused it, simply accepting the sudden, crushing feeling of being caught in a cloud of bad vibes. Recognizing the source gave me a chance to cultivate the mood and try to turn it around.

To change the mental channel, I decided to take the next day off and escape to my little Endor retreat. This isn’t just a vacation day; it’s a strategic retreat to a place where it’s just me and my thoughts, surrounded by the healing power of nature. Instead of vegging out on the internet, I reviewed my personal journey by looking through some old journal entries from the last 10 years.

This simple act of remembrance unearthed memories I had long forgotten. Good memories of the kids when they were young, moments of pure, unadulterated “Light Side” joy. By finding these old entries, the corners of my mouth lifted into a smile, reminding me that the good is still out there, that the battle is worth fighting, and that the things that truly matter are far more powerful than any grumpy coworker.

The Transformation: The Super Power of “DO”

The final act of transformation back to the Light Side was to bring on the super power of “DO.” Action is the antithesis of cynicism. There was an old project not finished on my Endor Tree House that I wanted to complete. I spent several hours focused completely on design and building, channeling all my frustrated energy into creation. The moment the project was complete, the happy mood was fully restored, and I could move forward 

The second lesson I take from this short encounter is a well-known one: Only hang out with people that you want to be like. If you hang around negative people, the negativity will stick to you like crap on your shoe. It’s nearly impossible to deflect it. At work, you have to stop these toxic conversations in their tracks before they bring you down.

And that is another reason to retire. At work there is a percentage of negative people that you need to work with day to day. You are not in control of the people you engage with. Outside of work, like in retirement, its up to you how much negativity you put up with. You choose who to interact with

So in life, it’s about finding the right happy people, hanging out with them, and being happy yourself. Retiring will make it that much easier. Let’s keep that good mood growing so the hair grows back stronger. Don’t let Negativity win.

Laugh it up Fuzzball. It will help retirement