Have you experienced the negative power of positive thinking?
Sure he seems happy, but the half-full glass harbors a dark secret.
Like many cynical Gen-Xers raised on a healthy diet of irony and apathy, it’s easy for me to be annoyed and dismissive of the cult of positive thinking. Even though I am an optimist in the traditional sense (things are generally ok and we can make them better!), the personal pep-talk industry seems pretty shallow and pointless. What a relief then, to find that science not only supports this claim, but cautions specifically against the harm in positive thinking, as reported in Aeon:
Positive thinking can make us feel better in the short term, but over the long term it saps our motivation, preventing us from achieving our wishes and goals, and leaving us feeling frustrated, stymied and stuck. If we really want to move ahead in our lives, engage with the world and feel energised, we need to go beyond positive thinking and connect as well with the obstacles that stand in our way. By bringing our dreams into contact with reality, we can unleash our greatest energies and make the most progress in our lives.
…
Consistently, we found a correlation between positive fantasies and poor performance. The more that people ‘think positive’ and imagine themselves achieving their goals, the less they actually achieve.
…
We looked at all sorts of goals and pursuits, including learning a foreign language, doing well in mathematics, succeeding in business negotiations, making more effective decisions, kicking cigarette habits, exercising more, and giving help in workplace settings. In all of these cases, we found the same pattern: obstacles led people with realistic goals to apply more effort and perform better, and people with unrealistic goals to pull back. Across many areas of life, mental contrasting seemed to be a beneficial way of regulating the effort we put in so that we stay in the game and succeed.
So, knowing that all that “The Secret” nonsense is not only empty but actively hurting your chances of success, what are we to do?
How do you fall victim to the negative aspects of positive thinking?
What are the things you often think about doing, are proud of yourself for considering, and tell yourself you’re going to do, but still never seem to do?