Professional Deformation and Being Positive
Electrical engineering is not a very common profession. Yet, when I was doing my compulsory military duty, two of the guys there were also electrical engineers. One was working for Motorola. He once said that he was seeing the negative sides of the things most of the time. This was also his job: Finding faults in the processes and products and codes. He thought that it made him a ‘negative person’, someone who sees the problems, downsides at first glance. This is professional deformation. Your job becoming your life and having (mostly) negative effects.
As I think about it, my day work required me to find faults, defects and problems on the new build construction projects I was auditing/supervising/managing and sort them out. Similar to the engineer I met. Electricians would do the hand-on work on site and I would go there and tell them what they were doing wrong. Not a fun job, depending on one’s attitude. My job was to make sure that the job was done by the book and as per the specs. What they could do to make it better job in the end.
SOCIAL LIFE
For quite some time, I was like that in my social life too. When someone would ask for my opinion about their endeavours or goals, I would go ahead and tell them that it was not possible for this and that. They’d feel bad because I was right majority of the time.
Once my younger brother told me that he would not share with me anymore. Simply because I was making him feel bad. He was coming to me with a lot of enthusiasm and energy only for me to bring his energy down and making him lose interest, lose his will to go ahead. This made me question my attitude and I started to change it. I started telling them how they could achieve their goals instead. It worked quite well. I was not the negative person anymore (majority of the time though).
PHOTOGRAPHY COMES INTO PLAY
Collectively, I believe that I was still a negative-seeing person with a happy facade. Wherever I’d look, I’d still see the negative sides more than the positives. Then, I think, photography came into place. If one is a photographer, one sees good sides wherever one looks. This way, they see good things majority of the time. Or almost all the time. Being a photographer, looking everywhere through a visor made me see good and beautiful things and surroundings all the time. When I say good and beautiful, I mean photogenic beauty.
HAPPY ENDING?
Nowadays, I still see the problems and defects when I am specifically looking for them. But not all the time. Photography and being solution oriented made me become a more positive person.
If you have a similar issue, I’d highly recommend taking this as an example, a good practice and apply to your life. Before you know it, your life may get better. Want to give it a try?
