Balancing positive and negative thinking

It is well-known that negative thinking, counteracts achievement. Positive thinking is seen as the only way to be happy and successful. While the benefits of positive thinking are not at all disputed, negative thinking has an essential role to play in the pursuit of any endeavor. There is a proviso however. It is essential to keep a sound balance between the two types of thinking.

To understand what is meant by a balance, let’s first highlight a few aspects to consider regarding each of them. The extremes of these concepts are denoted by the terms black and white thinking. Black thinking is on one end of the scale, while white thinking is on the other end, with a gray scale between them.
Let’s first deal with black thinking.

Black thinking on the one end of the scale is totally negative. It is where you superimpose a negative onto a negative. In fact, you are regarded as chronically negative. Any opportunity to succeed is simply seen as a hurdle which is deliberately put in your way. Thinking in this extreme, can cause misery beyond believe. It can block your mind to such an extent that you cannot think about all the joy and happiness, which is at your disposal.

With white thinking on the other end of the scale, you have positive thinking in the extreme. White thinking entails a positive is superimposed onto a positive. With this combination, you are optimistic in the extreme. Everything is always hunky-dory.

While the benefits of positive thinking are not at all in dispute, you should be aware of a serious problem. You are deliberately denying reality, thereby simply avoiding facing up to your problems, and for that matter, anybody else’s problems, whatever they may be. Instead of seeing and hearing what is really happening around you, white thinking deludes you by not seeing what is wrong.

Now, here’s something interesting. For positive thinking to be of any real value, it should be seen as leading to an outcome. In other words, it must be something from which you and other can derive some benefit. This includes creating something new, which is of value contributing to improve something, to provide a service, to add value, and so on.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter how positive you are. Unless your thinking results in achievement, it is of no consequence. You may as well not be thinking at all.

Now what has all this to do with a balance between positive and negative thinking? You see, anything you want to achieve is always associated with risk. Risk occurs when you cannot predict an outcome with certainty, and is a major source of negative thinking.

The moment you think about risk, you inevitably consider worst case scenarios, i.e. you consider the negatives, which put you on the gray scale of thinking. Depending on the intensity and level of the worst case scenario, the event or idea is either put on hold, or scrapped altogether. This could very well be a totally wrong decision.

The only way to deal with the balance between negative and positive thinking, especially if you are a positive thinker, is to conduct your thinking within the systems context. Such a system is contained in practicing the art to think, to lead and to achieve. This form of art requires that you must have a specifically designed system framework and associated processes according to which your thinking is guided in whatever endeavor you are pursuing.

Therefore, although you are a positive thinker and an optimist, you are required in systems thinking to deliberately incorporate negatives in whatever you are contemplating. In other words, grey scale thinking becomes essential if you want to be successful. This entails, among others:
• challenging an existing think pattern;
• questioning benefits a particular think pattern will have as a result or outcome;
• creating new think patterns;
• rearranging existing patterns into new patterns; and
• examining the validity of various alternatives to a solution.

In pursuing success, no matter whether you are committed to white thinking, negative thinking has an essential role to play, provided you apply it within the context of systems thinking.

You should, however, be on the alert that if you apply negative thinking, it should not detract from your positive focus. Rather, without dwelling on the negative, and getting side-tracked, you should only use negative thinking to reinforce your efforts to achieve and accept responsibility for the results. Combining positive and negative thinking within the context of systems thinking will ensure maintaining a healthy balance in pursuing your field of endeavor.