Thinking Positive Can Hurt You

[sector7]

Interesting read: Thinking positive is a surprisingly risky manoeuvre | Aeon Essays

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.

Positive thinking impedes performance because it relaxes us and drains the energy we need to take action. After having participants in one study positively fantasise about the future for as little as a few minutes, we observed declines in systolic blood pressure, a standard measure of a person’s energy level. These declines were significant: whereas smoking a cigarette will typically raise a person’s blood pressure by five or 10 points, engaging in positive fantasies lowers it by about half as much.

 

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[TonyStark]

Positive thinking: 0
Smoking: 1

 

[garyjsmith]

Think positive and drink caffeine

 

[GMSI7D]

Interesting read: Thinking positive is a surprisingly risky manoeuvre | Aeon Essays

this is the problem with our society : everybody can write a book and say the opposite of the author next door

so readers are frustrated as hell because they don't have a solid foundation of truth to begin their life


the pareto principle says that 80 % of books that are sold in libraries are BS

and only 20 % matter

the problem is that 80 % of authors can legally become rich by selling BS and we can't sue them because they are just selling "opinions " and this is legal.

 

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[GuestUser450]

When will the pop behavioral economists go away? Grade A example of getting the wrong answer because you asked the wrong question. This is what happens when you give a book report based on the summary on the back; maybe he read a tim ferriss tweet about stoicism and learned by osmosis.

Why be positive? Because you're an adult and know there's nothing else to be.

Folks when you read this shite, ask a couple of questions:

* Who gets paid and how? Follow the money. Not to find a conspiracy, just the author's incentives.
* Has this person ever cold-called anyone? Meaning, do they live in the real world with risk or the media world where publishing postmodern, remixed flippant 'think pieces' is somehow a contribution.
* What is this diverting your attention from? What else should you be doing right now?

Macro concept to grasp: Every study is wrong because there's no end to anything. In every direction, it all goes on forever. We're limited by the tools we have to see. Instead of navel gazing, have a sense of humility and go to work.

Stop trying to be better and get better.

 

[ChrisV]