DevYou

Positive thinking is a force people have harnessed for ages to improve their lives, but there’s a conceptual flipside that’s just as useful. Namely — and this is a little subtle, so bear with me — NOT thinking negatively.

What do I mean by this? Perhaps an analogy will help. When mountain bicycling on steep, narrow trails, deep ruts carved by rain are dangerous. These ruts often run parallel to the trail, and if your front wheel drops into one of them as you’re zipping along, you’ll lose control and crash. POW! Not fun.

The strange thing is, if you look at the rut you’re more likely to fall into it. If you don’t look at the rut you’re more likely to stay clear. It’s a simple technique that helps you remain safely on your bike instead of sprawled out in the dirt: DON’T LOOK WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO GO.

“Not thinking negatively” is like that. As important as looking where you want to go is NOT looking where you don’t want to go. If you’re taking on a new challenge, then don’t obsesses about failing. If you’re meeting an interesting stranger, then don’t worry that she won’t like you. If there are several possible outcomes in a given situation, don’t focus on the one you would least like.

Another analogy is driving a car down a dark, two-lane highway in the middle of the night. Skilled drivers know not to fixate on the headlights of oncoming cars, and instead concentrate on the right edge of their own lane. Fixating on the oncoming headlights may cause you to drift into the wrong lane. POW! Really not fun.

Things to try:

• As you go about your day, see if you tend to focus on where you want to go or where you dread to go — metaphorically speaking, of course.
• Consider someone you admire, someone who has accomplished notable things in life. Can you sense whether they focus on where they want to go? If it’s someone you know, ask them.
• If you find yourself metaphorically staring at the rut in the trail, see if you can reframe those thoughts, perhaps with the “How Reframe” I wrote about in this earlier post.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 10:05 am and is filed under Mind, Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.