How "Positive" Thinking Sets You Up To Fail

For me it seems that there is nothing wrong with sizing up an issue and taking the time to determine what and how you are going to overcome it. Confidence and false bravado are two very different things; knowing you are in over your head but not giving up on finding a solution instead of throwing your hands up and leaving it up to chance and/or the supreme deity/being in your life. As the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves, so in my view leaving the solution up to chance is no solution at all.

Often it boils down to taking a rational look at the problem, doing the research to understand the problem, and then reasoning out the solution. Panic and emotion are often the enemies of the answer. In some cases you may not be able to find a practical solution quickly enough. Sometimes the answer is to ask for help from others who understand the problem better than you, being humble is a virtue and learning from the process can benefit others who come across the same predicaments after you did.

AlpineMike wrote:

chickaree wrote: My philosophy (trite as it is) has always been hope for the best but plan for the worst. The best of both worlds.

There is nothing wrong with being prepared. I live by the "Boy Scout Motto" myself. Keeping a positive mental attitude can help with overall motivation and success of almost any task. In my own experience, making light in a really dark situation can keep one focused on the work at hand.

My mother always told me "Franz, there is nothing you can not do if you put your mind to it." It is something I applied in life until I finally realized there are some things that you can't do no matter how much you think about it. It dawned on me once I got out of the little pond of our High School that there are people who are more talented than I and no matter how much I might think I could be better than them, it was impossible to compete. Some were simply smarter, others with greater physical gifts than I, etc.

Currently my philosophy is that everything in life that happens has a silver lining in it somewhere and that is what I will try to find. This includes negative events because somewhere in them there is a lesson I can find that allows me to learn something and thus move forward in life.

The article author believes positive thinking sets you up for failure. Certainly as he paints some extreme aspects of positive thinking (I call wishful or reaching for unattainable goals) then failure is a distinct possibility. Failure is not bad in itself as it too offers a silver lining in it that allows one to develop a more realistic perspective.

Frankly, I prefer a person with a positive as opposed to negative attitude.