27 September 2023

Bad news: A pessimist’s guide to staying positive

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Travis Bradberry says that because we are constantly being told to take a positive attitude towards challenges he has some advice on how it can be done.


We’ve all received the well-meaning advice to “stay positive”.

The greater the challenge, the more this wisdom can come across as Pollyannaish and unrealistic.

It’s hard to find the motivation to focus on the positive when positivity seems like nothing more than wishful thinking.

The real obstacle to positivity is that our brains are hard-wired to look for and focus on threats.

This survival mechanism served humankind well back when we were hunters and gatherers, living each day with the very real threat of being killed.

Today, this mechanism breeds pessimism and negativity through the mind’s tendency to wander until it finds a threat.

When the threat is real and lurking in the bushes down the path, this mechanism serves you well.

When the threat is imagined and you spend two months convinced the project you’re working on is going to flop, it leaves you with a soured view of reality.

Maintaining positivity is a daily challenge that requires focus and attention.

You must be intentional about staying positive if you’re going to overcome the brain’s tendency to focus on threats.

Pessimism is trouble because it’s bad for your health.

Numerous studies have shown that optimists are physically and psychologically healthier than pessimists.

Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania has conducted extensive research on the topic.

He studied people from age 25-to-65 to see how their levels of pessimism or optimism influenced their overall health.

The study found that pessimists’ health deteriorated far more rapidly as they aged.

Although the exact mechanism through which pessimism affects health hasn’t been identified, researchers have found that pessimism is associated with a weakened immune response to tumours and infection.

Keeping a positive attitude isn’t just good for your health.

Dr Seligman has also studied the connection between positivity and performance.

In one study in particular, he measured the degree to which insurance salespeople were optimistic or pessimistic in their work.

Optimistic salespeople sold 37 per cent more policies than pessimists, who were twice as likely to leave the company during their first year of employment.

Dr Seligman has studied positivity more than anyone, and he believes in the ability to turn pessimistic thoughts and tendencies around.

His research shows that people can transform a tendency toward pessimistic thinking into positive thinking through simple techniques.

Here are three things that I’ll be doing to stay positive.

Separate Fact from Fiction:

The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them.

Most of our negative thoughts are just that — thoughts, not facts.

When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down.

Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.

You can bet the statements aren’t true any time you see words like never, always, worst, ever, etc.

Do you really always lose your keys? Of course not.

Perhaps you forget them frequently, but most days you do remember them.

Are you never going to find a solution to your problem?

If it really is an intractable problem, then why are you wasting your time beating your head against the wall?

If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you can trust, and see if he or she agrees with you.

When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event.

Identify a Positive:

Once you snap yourself out of self-defeating, negative thoughts, it’s time to help your brain learn to focus on the positive.

This will come naturally after some practice, but first you have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about.

Any positive thought will do to refocus your brain’s attention.

When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge.

In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small.

If you can’t think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week.

Perhaps there is an exciting event you are looking forward to that you can focus your attention on.

You must have something positive that you’re ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative.

Once you have identified a positive thought, draw your attention to that thought each time you find yourself dwelling on the negative.

Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude:

Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the right thing to do; it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23 per cent.

You cultivate an attitude of gratitude by taking time out every day to focus on the positive.

Any time you experience negative or pessimistic thoughts, use this as a cue to shift gears and think about something positive.

In time, a positive attitude will become a way of life.

I realise these three tips sound basic, but they have tremendous power because they train your brain to have a positive focus.

They break old habits if you force yourself to use them.

Given the mind’s natural tendency to wander toward negative thoughts, we can all use a little help with staying positive.

*Travis Bradberry is the co-founder of TalentSmart, a provider of emotional intelligence tests, emotional intelligence training, and emotional intelligence certification. He can be contacted at TalentSmart.com.

This article first appeared on the TalentSmart website.

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