positive thinking

synchro

i am generally quite a negative person
i really need to get into a positive mindset and fast
i think tats its absolutely vital to ones success
please leave any commets here and please recommmend any good books/sites on the topic
thanks

AdMMM

I actually think this would be more suited to the Personal Issues forum?

Karl Hungus

Don't bother trying to think positively, you'll only fail.

Neuro

synchro wrote:

please leave any commets here and please recommmend any good books/sites

Essays & Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer.

athena 2000

synchro wrote:

...i really need to get into a positive mindset and fast
i think tats its absolutely vital to ones success...

I can recommend to you The Other 90% by Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D.
copyright 2001, Three Rivers Press, New York
ISBN number: 0-609-80880-X

This book draws on neuroscience, performance psychology and work phsiology. It's fascinating and will educate you and give you some insights that might help change your attitudes about yourself and what you're capable of. It's also enjoyable to read. Good luck!

nesf

Excessive rambling follows:

It's a complex question really. Some people benifit hugely from "pop psychology books" such as "The power of positive thinking", others like myself find them of no benifit whatsoever. It's important to not think in black and white here. It's a fallacy to think in terms of black and white / positive and negative thinking. It's a continium. Lack either and you're in trouble.

Sitting in the middle is also not necessarily a good thing either. Some people are better off leaning slightly in one direction. Call it cynicism, optimism whatever, you need to think about it and figure out where you should be. Or in otherwords, figure out to some extent who you are and what you want to be. Not easy, and bluntly, not something many people do very well on in their early years.


Stop yourself for a second and stop looking at it from the perspective of just being negative. There's a reason for it, these things aren't random. Your "natural" stance on things is not necessarily your present stance. Yes negative thinking can be problematic and yes it can be a bad thing, but not necessarily. Only unjustified or excessive negative thinking is unhealthy imho.

You age is a major factor. It genuinely makes a difference. Also your maturity level, which could be totally unrelated to your age in some cases. In order to do anything about your thinking in the long term, you need to have some idea of who you are. I'm belabouring the point here but I think it's an important one. There are no short-cuts to self awareness and knowledge of one's self.

Nosce te ipsum (Know thyself) and your life will be easier. Otherwise you'll effect no long term benificial change. Now you mightn't be after that, but you should be. Then again, if you're in your teens then, well, you've a long way until you find yourself, nevermind start knowing yourself. For this, yeah, just effect any short term change you feel might help you.


Danger signs to watch for:

Overly and persistent negative thinking (and I'm taking seriously negative here, not just "being negative") may be a good reason to have a chat with your GP about seeing a therapist. If the issue is proving too much to handle on your own then do not be ashamed to ask for help. It's a mark of strenght and maturity when a person can admit there is a problem and that they need help to solve it.

Poor self image. This is a big one. If your self image drops to very low levels you may need to start thinking about what I said above re therapy.


Not intended to scare you btw. You, most likely, have nothing wrong in that sense and just need a slight attitude adjustment to be happy. The problem is that even slight attitude adjustments can be tough and frustrating thing.


Books may help you. Personally, I've never found them any use. I've read them and agreed with them but not been able to effect the change necessary just based on the book itself. This doesn't invalidate them though, I've known many people to find them of great benifit. The most cited one in my experience is "The Power of Positive Thinking". It's tried and tested and a good place to start on these books. There's an eBook version aswell iirc.

Self help books and sites are very hit and miss. For some people they work, for some they don't. I'm saying this, and repeating this, to hopefully help you understand that these books can't work miracles. They can help, but only if you are trying to help yourself. In essence, the help you need will come from yourself. These books can only help this happen, they cannot in themselves do anything for you.

The right mindset is crucial to making anything like this work. Not necessarily a positive one, but one that is honest about yourself. There are bad things about your personality. You might not like to think about that, but it's true nonetheless. You will need to face upto such realities in order to help yourself. You "negative" traits are as important to this process as the positive ones. You can focus all you want on the positive ones, but if you ignore the negative ones, it'll do you little good. Balance is crucial to this kind of thing.


Anyways, apologies for the long rambling reply, 6am and insomnia can lead to unnecessary ramblings in users

Hope the above can be of some help to you.