I hate to admit it, but sometimes I can easily slip into the habit of speaking negatively about people. I do not like this about myself, and I normally feel embarrassed once I realize what I have done, and I quickly take responsibility for my shortcoming and try to make things right.

Everybody knows that tearing others down, being derogatory, and spreading nasty negative things are simply not the traits of a person of good character and moral fiber. Still, it often seems so much easier for us to find the negative in other people. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

We can learn to stop tearing others down and become ‘people builders.’ I believe that whenever people invest their time thinking of healthy and positive ways to build people, it makes it a lot harder to be so critical of others. When we actively look for ways to say something positive to or about someone else, and take time to recognize people’s strengths, we are ready to ‘expose’ the good we know whenever the opportunity presents itself. And that is people building!

When we have taken time to notice the good and positive about people, rather than the negative, it is much easier to steer negative conversations in the right direction. I often do this by saying something like, “Let’s get to the good news!” and then proceed to say something uplifting about the person who was being bashed.

Face it. All of us are ‘a work in progress’ and none of us can say we don’t need to improve in one area or another. And yet, don’t we all want people to think and say the best about us anyway? Shouldn’t that make us all the more willing to look for ways to be building others rather than tearing them down?

I encourage you, this week, to recommit to being a person of high standards and quality–one who looks for and exposes the good in others. Determine right now that from now on you will be a “people builder.”