Positive thinking does not work

“Close your eyes. Visualize. Gaze at your belly button. Sit on your lotus position and empty your mind, and something wonderful will happen.”

These are the words of modern-day success gurus who promise quick money and success through some mysterious and mystical magical rituals. And gullible people pay good money to hear them.

Guess what? It works!

Yes, it really works. When they are told to empty their minds, their minds REALLY become empty – devoid of logic, reason and common sense. 

On the other end of the spectrum, there are teachings on positive thinking that are carried to the extreme. Just think positive and everything will turn out all right, the teachings go. This is likewise crazy.

I was in New York one time listening to famous author and speaker Jim Collins narrating a story about prisoners of war. He was saying that there are prisoners who are tenacious enough, who live to see the day of their freedom. But there are also those who give up all hope, who die early. The reason why those who gave up all hope died early? OPTIMISM!

When I heard this, I was taken aback. How could that possibly be?

Collins said that a prisoner’s optimism tells him that he would be released not later than Christmas. So he tries to think positive. And one Christmas comes and then another, and his positive thinking turns to despair; despair then leads to hopelessness. And this is why the prisoner gives up hope and dies earlier.

Positive thinking is not all bad. It is definitely better than negative thinking. Ronnie Shakes says, “I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What the hell good would that do?” But positive thinking should be coupled with the ability to connect to reality and face brutal facts. Get a CEO with sales background whose only slogan in life is “Yes we can!”, and his unchecked optimism might just run the business to the ground. On the other hand, get an ultra-conservative finance person to run the business based on his restrictive worldview, and the business may not grow to its full potential.

This principle works for business and also for life.

You and I need to take a serious look at our environment. We need to be realistic enough to recognize that there are certain laws that operate in the universe, and no amount positive thinking could make us alter those.

Take gravity, for example. It’s been around for a while and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. You can convince yourself that you are a descendant of Superman, and in your positive thinking fly and try to defy gravity. But that would be very dangerous. And foolish. Because when you jump off a building, you will not, at any rate, be able to defy gravity. But you will confirm it. Especially during the landing.

You may be playing for a basketball team who is 20 points behind with just 30 seconds on the clock. You can shout “Beat them!” all you want, but nothing short of a miracle would make you win the game.

My point: Optimism should be tempered by realism. Respect universal laws. Logic is a friend of faith.

Do your homework. Study history. Face the brutal facts. Don’t waste time on silly seminars and absurd meetings that would only leave you a little bit poorer and a lot crazier.

Scriptures say, “Whatsoever you sow you shall reap.” and “Love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” These are laws that work all the time.

(I’d love to hear from you! Click on to www.franciskong.com to send me feedback. You can also listen to my radio program “Business Matters” aired at 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays over 98.7 dzFE-FM, ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)