Happy New Year Canna Fam. I do not know about you guys, but I am insanely excited and happy heading into 2021. I am literally just finishing my quarantine from testing positive for Covid over Christmas, and I feel like I could not have ended 2020 with a more realistic representation of how the entire year felt. I feel like a weight has lifted, and maybe that is silly that a new year has the power to do all of that, but it feels like a fresh start and that is refreshing to me. Today I want to talk about “haters” and the potential impact they can have if you let them get the best of you. I probably notice it the most in the social media world, but we all have haters literally everywhere in life. It blows my mind how many people want to see others that are doing well fail, like somehow by their competitor failing they are automatically going to be successful. Wow, what a way to gain success. I think people fail to see the disadvantages of this method until it is too late. What I always think is worse than having haters, is the potential of letting your haters get the best of you. Keeping your head held high while others try to tear you down is no easy feat, and I want to praise anyone that has done this successfully, and especially if you managed to do this in 2020.
It is amazing how confident you can feel in yourself, and how good you can even feel about your current amount of self love……then BAM, life gives another test! Someone will be literally thrown on your current path as a way to see if you can still be taken off course. It is up to you to decide when given that obstacle what the best path is to move forward. I have failed and will continue to fail a lot of these tests that I have been given, but I also am beginning to learn from a lot of these failures. The thing about dealing with haters, is you have to remember that they are not on your side. No one who is willing to hate on you or throw negative energy your direction is someone you should want in your circle. When we tend to let people like this get the best of us, we risk turning bitter ourselves. I see a lot of people I admire in my own personal life, but especially in this industry that tend to let the negativity and hate consume them. It can be really hard to ignore people sometimes, especially if they are doing things or saying things that have a negative impact on you. However, sometimes I think people dig a bigger hole by deciding to fight with these people, instead of just not getting involved in the drama.
I know personally how hard it is to decide to be the bigger person sometimes and keep your head held high, even when all we want to do is stand up for ourselves. It is interesting that we really seem to have more power in fighting negativity with positivity. When you have haters that are trying to bring you down, stooping to their level only helps them to successfully get you off course and off focus. By responding with positivity, or just taking the high road of not responding at all, you still manage to walk away with integrity and your character intact. I spoke in my blog “Escaping a Toxic Work Environment” about the power of killing someone with kindness. It truly does make a difference sometimes to choose not to react. Why give your haters the joy of letting them know they got to you, when instead you could just know your value and not let someone else determine it for you. There is a huge power in silence, and letting your actions speak about your character. There is also power in how you receive someone’s messages. One thing my sister made me aware of is that I do not need to receive all hate with negative intent. If I manage to find the positivity within my haters, I can now turn a bad situation into a positive one. That sounds like a win to me. Also, it is a lot easier said than done but I think that moving into 2021 I will work on how I receive things and my ability to keep things positive or to turn things quickly into a negative downfall. By responding with positivity, or not responding at all, you are not only taking the high road, but you are protecting your reputation.
By working in such a small industry still, we put ourselves at risk by being involved in the many social media platforms they have today. Now being a part of these outlets can be a huge benefit when it comes to branding and staying up to date with what is going on within the cannabis world, but it can also put you in the spotlight between any battles you get yourself in. I think in the heart of a lot of arguments or conversations people have, we forget how easy it is to have our words screenshotted and then used against us. No one is really protected these days from having what they said in what felt like a private setting end up being blasted in a very public one. Unfortunately, we take that risk living in this day and age, so it is even more wise to learn how to take a positive approach to our haters and sometimes just keep our mouth shut. I applaud those who manage to stand up to their haters with class and dignity, and do not need to slander or get even in order to make themselves feel better. You guys are the real heroes, and any of us who have dealt with haters can speak for that.
Overall, I hope that everybody finds the strength within them in 2021 to stay resilient and to more importantly stay positive. We have all been through a lot lately as a community. There is not one person who could say 2020 was a great year, even if it may have been for them on a financial level. It was a rough year, for all of us. To anybody that is receiving hate right now, I wish you peace and I send you all my warrior vibes so that you will be able to respond with class and grace, if you choose to respond at all. I hope that you will have the patience to choose your battles, and to know when someone else’s words are a representation of them, and never of you. The people who choose to believe haters, they too will suffer from that negativity. I believe in karma, and I believe in paying it forward at all costs. Cheers to a positive 2021, and one where we practice letting go of the hate and putting that energy toward bigger and better things.
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