Positive thinking is not enough

Positive thinking is not enough

Effort is the key to successful positive thinking

Much is said and written about the power of positive thinking; but what is positive thinking? To some the absence of negative thoughts is enough. Logically positive thinking is the total removal of any and all negative thoughts. What then, do we use as a basis for judgment on what is positive?

Lao Tzu stated that only by comparison to short do we have long, only by comparison to cold, do we have hot, only by comparison to negative, do we have positive.

In Newtonian physics we understand that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Everything positive generates its own negative for comparison. This is one of the problems of the no platforming, cancel culture; where an unauthorised (that is not elected by a majority) group seek to stop alternative views (to those held by themselves) from being heard. When only one “ direction” is known the opposite “direction” is automatically created.

Positive thinking must acknowledge the existence of negative thoughts, in order to know what is positive. If there was a hypothetical society where everyone was genuinely equal in every respect, and there was no history at all, then there could be no judgment on what to do to “improve” things, since they would have no concept of anything that is less than they have and so have no understanding of what can be done to improve. So even if their situation was very poor, materially, or spiritually, or both; they would never change things.

Positive thinking has to embrace the existence of negative forces. There is a very famous quotation that can be restated as follows:- “Water cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside it. So do not allow negativity to get inside you and you will not sink into the swamp of negativity that drowns others.” There is an obvious built-in truth to this, but it does not claim you have to disregard and disrespect negativity, you have to prevent it taking over. If anyone refuses to accept that negative thoughts exist, if they are in denial, they can never be truly positive. Only by acknowledging you are on the bottom step and then applying effort, can you climb up those steps.

Positive thinking involves realism, a person who needs money has to acknowledge that need and decide to take positive action, they may make an effort and buy a lottery ticket and be positive in expectation of winning, that is fine. Just sitting there in denial of need and being positive something will change things, without any effort, is not fine. Nor will it work. Those who advocate “Cosmic ordering” do so with positive expectations of the outcome, but they also apply effort to placing the order, they have an intensity of focused energy on their specific requirements; they do not just have positive thoughts that something will somehow change. Being positive involves effort, a sports person can be positive they can win the event, but they have to apply effort to achieve that aim, they have to run the race and they have to use intensely focused energy to do so. They cannot stay in the starting blocks while remaining positive they will win.

Human life is like a huge pot of stew. The cook has to put in ingredients that they can expect will combine to make a nourishing and pleasant tasting meal. They can be thinking positive thoughts about how well the food is appreciated but they also have to use experience, knowledge and effort to find and use good and compatible ingredients. They cannot just place an empty pot on the stove, then sit back with positive thoughts about the resulting meal. There is another sector of the human race, people who are clever, bright above average intelligence but are lazy these will not make the effort, they expect everything to be made easy for them, they have the attention span of a 6-week-old puppy because they have the intelligence to grasp an idea but not the mental endurance to work at it. They tend to imagine that if they are not instantly in charge then it is beneath them. Being humans they claim it is beyond them they do not understand but that is smoke screen, they may have positive thoughts but lack application, focus, effort.

It is self-evident that negative thoughts will mostly lead to negative results. If you stand on that bottom step being sure you do not have to ability to climb them, you will not climb them. Negative thoughts destroy the ability to make effort, that is why positive thinking helps. Positive thoughts encourage effort and so bring success closer.