Negative Thinking Impedes Progress

by Heather McLaughlin

Believe it or not negative thinking is a surefire way to impede progress and might be the root of some of your problems.

You might be thinking.. “How can this be? I’m just thinking ‘realistically?” and that might even be a valid thought. For every negative thought you have about yourself or a situation there’s other valid thoughts that can counter it. Replacing negative and unfruitful thoughts with ones of success change the way you think and lead you to success. Self fulfilling prophecies are nothing more than giving into feelings of self doubt.

The next time you’re feeling down or upset about something, try to look at it with different eyes. Instead of reacting to a situation over and over, make strides to fix it or change it, without adding a lot of extra emotion. This can be applied to the many facets of our personal and professional lives.

If you’re guilty of being upset with yourself when you look in a mirror, look for 3 things that you like about yourself and find joy in them. You might have beautiful eyes, a nice smile, a melodic singing voice, or shapely legs. Remind yourself of your beauty and size up the “whole package.” You aren’t just a number on a scale or a size in a clothing store. Nothing is written in stone, and you have the power and strength to turn things around. 10 minutes of being upset with the way you look is 10 minutes you could have spent doing something to change it.

If you are faced with challenges within your profession or career assess what you can do to resolve it in a positive matter. Depending on your situation, you could take a class to further your education and increase your chances for a promotion or look for employment elsewhere.

You should never stop growing as a person and being your own worst enemy is the only thing that could stand in the way of your progress. As David Bernard Shaw once said:

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”

Don’t be the reasonable person that accepts negative thinking as reality and lets the world decide that you’re right.