Our brains are wired to perceive anything that is foreign or different in our environments as a threat. While that was useful over two hundred thousand years ago because it meant we could react when it came to being chased by lions, tigers, and bears - Oh My! As modern men and women, we still have this response even though we don’t have the same kinds of threats in our environment. What that also means is that we may be overly focused on the negative, for the wrong reasons.
In the context of our careers and work life -- if left unchecked -- our negativity bias (often fear based) can steal valuable hours of productivity, can hold us back from what we’re trying to accomplish and decrease our overall sense of joy and satisfaction.
However, let’s look at how negativity both serves us and hinders us:
Our negative thoughts are a guide. They’re there to guide us to set realistic goals and objectives for ourselves.Therefore, if we’re having negative thoughts, let’s learn from them.
Whenever we have negative thoughts about a task or goal, it's often because we’ve set the goal based on delusions or fantasies. We haven't broken down the task into small enough parts to make the objective seem attainable to us. Sometimes we just have to “chunk it down to small bites” (Demartini, 2016).
When we don’t do this, we become discouraged and negative about the goal instead of optimistic, and positive; we stop seeing our goals as attainable instead of seeing ourselves as accomplishing them.
Our negative thinking can be a guide that brings us back to set true, measurable and clear goals that get us closer to our desired outcome.
So, instead of trying to get rid of our negativity, let’s understand how to use it, transform it and be thankful for it. Negative thinking is in our psyche for a purpose - It’s there to make sure we don’t have delusions and unrealistic expectations about the steps in between our current situation and the desired outcome.
We need to ensure that with the goal we set, we can see all its parts and steps, clearly. You can do this by breaking it down into smaller components, taking action steps, and learning when and how to delegate things. Let’s not forget to ask for help -- and most importantly -- to set realistic deadlines. Focus on what you want to achieve : perseverance and effort lead us to our goals.
With love,
Natalie