Nov 13, 2018
The Positives of Negative Thinking
In this post I wanted to elaborate on an idea which I’ve almost started to implement in my life, I would call my self a pessimist but I believe it has helped me achieve many goals I have had. So, I did some research in this idea and found some interesting ideas about this concept which to an extent I believe can benefit everyone.
NEGATIVE THINKING HELPS YOU AVOID FAILURE
Gabriele Oettingen says predicting obstacles is an important part of getting things done, but the key is not to dwell on them. “You want to integrate the obstacles into images of the desired future and then develop a plan that will help you circumvent or address the anticipated hurdles,” she said. By this what I am trying to suggest is that the whole saying ‘plan for the worst and hope for the best’ is something that people should take more seriously.
NEGATIVE RESULTS CAN STRENGTHEN YOUR FOCUS
In their book The Upside of Your Dark Side, authors Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener offer an argument that negativity manifests itself in a range of characteristics beyond things like aggression and hostility. It also includes things like critical thinking and caution, which heighten your senses and have the potential to improve your results. I have personally experienced this first hand, I am an avid basketball fan and when in a game and you’re the cause of your team losing you almost develop another level of focus and accuracy, in order to keep my team in the game in basketball and many sports they call it the ‘clutch gene’ especially just something we have in us that gives a greater ability to show up in the close situations. I believe it’s the anxiety that comes in these situations which allows you to excel.
NEGATIVE REMINDERS CAN KEEP YOU GRATEFUL
Thinking about death is probably the most negative thing to think about, but in a study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, researchers from Eastern Washington University and Hofstra University found that when participants visualised their own death using real-life scenarios, such as dying in an apartment fire, they better recognised their own mortality and it led to greater feelings of gratitude.
Overall I wanted to provide just a different view in pessimism, and how it can and has helped people like me and you, in no way am I advocating to be constantly looking for flaws and inconsistencies in people because that will inevitably make you a ‘jerk’. But I am trying to suggest sometimes it can be dangerous to not account for the negatives in life.
