As you are going to see here, when it comes to changing, attitudes, success or anything else, I am NOT a believer in “positive thinking”. In fact I believe that “positive thinking” is a very destructive illusion that can trap you in world of wishful thinking.
Here is why.
From my own prospective, positive thinking usually gets down to closing your eyes, ignoring the fact that you are failing or are miserable, and pretending things are going the way you want them to go. Believe and you will achieve, if that sounds familiar keep reading.
First of all, one of the observations that brought me to this conclusion was that every time when I asked for an advice to solve one of my problems, I always got a “positive” advice. And even though I cannot say that all these advises actually increased the suffering I had to endure through my problems, they did not help either.
I can’t tell you how frustrated I used to get at all the “positive” advice I got from friends and relatives back in my 20’s when I used to believe in being positive.
-Love yourself and then people will love you too! Yeah, right.
-You’ll find something! Well, eventually, I will find something,,,,. But who wants to wait? And who wants “something”?
-Just be nice. Nice people are lucky! Don’t even get me started on this one.
And the list is long,,,,,
The problem with “positive” thinking is that it is oftentimes an invitation to ignore the reality of your situation, to turn a blind eye to what you need to learn, and to keep on repeating mistakes. It’s tied together with another destructive “mind virus” that is part of our culture: “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
How About A Dose of Informed Enthusiasm Instead?
Informed enthusiasm simply means that you’ve trained yourself to spot where you are doing well, across many different levels; some obvious and some not so obvious. And, additionally, you’ve developed an incredibly effective way to remove confusion from situations that don’t quite go your way and to see exactly what you need to do differently the next time.
Intelligent motivation comes from knowing that, while you may not get what you want right away, you certainly will learn what you need to get what you want, or better. It’s a totally reality-based confidence in your ability to learn from each and every encounter and situation.