Does this sound familiar? You’ve just had your end of year review. You spent the last hour with your manager reviewing your progress. You were really pleased with your performance over the last year and have made some great headway in your work. You were expecting this to be a session full of praise, but no she told you, you need to work on your relationships with a particular client who is notorious for being difficult. You’re fuming.

Your house is on the market and you happened to be in when some potential buyers came to view your property, they were gushing over the décor and you felt a real sense of pride. That was until you overheard them talking about the bathroom. Apparently the bright pink you have on the wall looks like a colour you would find in a brothel. How dare they!

Why is it that we focus on the one negative comment amongst the plethora of positive ones?