The Power of Positivity
The other day I was getting some blood work done and hit a little speed bump. My lab orders weren’t successfully faxed over from the ordering physician. Somewhere along the line there was a complication and the fax didn’t go through. When I got to LabCorp to get my testing done, they ended up drawing blood based on orders from three months ago. None of which were the correct tests.
When the phlebotomist told me what my doctor was testing for I mentioned that I didn’t think any of those were correct. So I asked her if the order was from that day. When she said they were from the beginning of March I told her that my nurse should have sent over new ones. Her response, “You mean I might have drew all of this blood for nothing?!” She was very upset. I just smiled at her and asked her to call my doctor’s office to get the correct order. She left for a few minutes to get everything straightened out.
She came back in and ended up being able to use everything. All she had to do was replace the labels and we were good to go. No big deal.
The entire time I was in the room with her I just smiled and asked her how her day was, just trying to keep a conversation going. Once she came back from calling my nurse I noticed that she kept apologizing to me, telling me that I should be mad and irritated because of the mix up and that I’ve been there longer than necessary. BTW – apparently longer than necessary is 15 minutes, which is truly NBD.
After about the third “you should be so irritated” I stop the phlebotomist and said, “This is out of both of our control. Neither one of us can change the situation and eventually it’ll all get straightened out. There’s no reason to be upset or irritated. I appreciate your help and patience as much as you appreciate mine. In all honesty, if this is the worst thing that happens in both of our days, then I consider that a great day.”
After I said that I could see the weight lift off of her shoulder. She immediately relaxed. Right before I got up to leave she stopped me and said, “I wish everyone felt the same way as you. Almost all of my other patients would have been mad or gotten irritated with me. I truly appreciate your positivity.”
No one likes to be kept waiting. No one likes when things don’t go as planned. I get it. We’ve all been there and we’ve all gotten grouchy about it. Reflect back on any of those situations and ask yourself one question, “When did making a scene and having an attitude speed up the process or get you what you wanted?” Probably never, right?! Right.
People will cater towards your needs if you’re nice to them. People will respond and bust their butts to help you, if you’re nice to them. When you get cranky and rude towards people, that have no control over the situation, you get nowhere. The only thing that does is make them not want to help you, you might even receive crummier service. Your best option is to take a second to assess the situation and decide whether or not it’s worth ruining your day. 99% of the time, it isn’t worth it.
Find beauty in everything. Shed some light on others days. Be positive and watch your positivity’s contagiousness spread amongst the people around you. All it takes is one person, so why not be that person.
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