Negative thinking is an obstacle to happiness, improvement and success. It causes laziness, low self-esteem and unhappiness, and is the number one reason for failure.

In her book, Slimming Starts in the Mind, Dorina Sasson addresses the problem of negative thinking, and provides solutions and advice on how to substitute negative thinking with positive thinking. Here is an excerpt from her book, where she writes about negative thinking and failure:

Negative thinking anticipates failure

I am sure that you are familiar with the term “Negative thinking”. It is a mental attitude of dwelling on negative thoughts, and letting fear, lack and worries run your life.

People who are prone to negative thinking use phrases such as:
· Nothing comes easy in life.
· It is too good to be true.
· This good cannot last long, something will eventually go wrong.

· I will apply for a better position, but I have no chance of getting it.
· Why bother, it’s in my genes to fail.
· I am not talented enough to win this scholarship.

· I would never be able to afford myself a trip to Paris.
· Living in a fancy house will always be just a dream.
· I may as well get used to what I have, because it won’t get any better.

If you anticipate misfortune, failure and disappointment, you will most probably refrain from taking any initiative and action, in order to avoid possible negative results. However, if you choose to be passive and take no action, you deprive yourself the chance of gaining success.

The tendency to negative thinking is not something one is born with; it is usually acquired from a negatively oriented environment, and is often transferred on from parents to children. Luckily, through awareness and training, one can learn to think in a positive manner, and consider failure, as a temporary step on the ladder to success.

People often ask me why positive thinking does not work for them. Here is an email message I have received recently:

“I’ve been trying this whole positive thinking thing for about 2 years now with no results. Things actually seen to be getting worse. I’m up to my neck in debt and my health isn’t the greatest. I watched “The secret” and thought, “wow”, but after a while of really trying to change my thought patterns, I had to give up on it.”

Why does this happen?

Like everything in life, positive thinking requires constant training. You need to try again and again until you succeed. Rarely things change overnight.

Usually, when people first hear about positive thinking and how it can change their lives, they get excited and elated, but if they don’t see immediate results, they often get disappointed and discouraged and lose any faith in positive thinking.

To make it work for you, you need to make it your predominant mental attitude, and not something you think about only now and then. It is not enough to be positive for a few minutes and negative for the rest of the day.

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Are you a victim of negative thinking? Do you feel upset, down, disappointed or frustrated? Do you find yourself thinking on problems, failure, obstacles or bad health? Do you worry a lot?

If you let negative thoughts invade into your mind, you are actually surrendering your mastery over your life. You are letting these negative thoughts rule your life. Just consider how much time and energy you spend on worries, fears or anxiety! It is just wasted time and energy.

If you do nothing to prevent negative thinking, its power over you will grow, which means that you will expect failure and problems, and therefore will not try to improve your life.

The best way to prevent negative thinking is to focus on its opposite, on positive thinking. Don’t fight your negative thoughts, because this means you will focus on them, making them stronger. Better focus on solutions, on finding a way out, on positive mental images and on doing things and taking action.

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