Comments on: Why positive thinking is overrated

By: Destined For 150

Destined For 150 — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:50:05 +0000

If more people did things instead of sitting around thinking about it and looking for motivation, just think of all they could accomplish! That’s what I tell people… stop looking for someone to coddle you through the process. Just get to it and stop wasting time.

By: Guess What? You Don’t Need Motivation « Tiny Glow

Guess What? You Don’t Need Motivation « Tiny Glow — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:43:46 +0000

[...] Extra-credit reading: “Why positive thinking is overrated” [...]

By: Ms .45

Ms .45 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:01:10 +0000

Ha ha, I dropped about 25kg last year because I was working with an utter douchebag who badly needs to be punched in the crotch (but who has the most divine body… see, looks really aren’t everything). Every lift, every squat, every step on the treadmill or cross-trainer was done with white-hot hate and a semi-pleasant reverie involving a spot of Gordon Freeman action on the back of this fucker’s head.

So, not a positive thought in sight… but 25kg of weight loss to show for it. I’d be grateful to him if he wasn’t such an utter prick.

By: Mike Mahler

Mike Mahler — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:41:22 +0000

Hey Krista, thanks for sharing my article with your readers. Glad you liked it and great feedback from everyone here. Thanks a lot and I think you will love my upcoming book: “Live Life Aggressively!: What self-help gurus don’t want you to know”

By: PB

PB — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:02:45 +0000

These last two blogs are some of the best common sense motivation I have read in a long time. Sometimes life comes easy, sometimes it feels like getting dragged stark naked thru a rosebush backwards. Sometimes you just have to put your head down and bull your way thru, despite the discomfort or fear that you feel. It seems that that lesson is the hardest one in life to learn, but it is one of the most important, because the best things in life are not free-you pay for them with mind and muscle, spirit and soul.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:26:13 +0000

The danger with the mythology of positive thinking is that it can devolve into a form of blaming the victim. You see this often in cancer patients who want to “beat cancer” by “staying positive”. Well, if the cancer returns or is resistant to treatment, is the patient to blame for not be “positive” enough?

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:21:28 +0000

Thanks for this one.
My alarm went off this morning and I felt ‘less than motivated’ then I remember reading this post last night.
Got up, ate my tuna and spinach and smashed it in the gym.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:09:22 +0000

If you’re going to do something, you need to believe, at the very least, that it’s worth doing for some reason; otherwise you won’t do it, or you’ll half-ass it, and of course it won’t work. That’s as much “positive attitude” as you really need; anything beyond that is nice, but non-essential.

By: Josten

Josten — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:39:04 +0000

i believe that positive thinking to some is overrated because of the talks about it negatively and those who say it doesnt work.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:37:23 +0000

I’m very glad to see someone call out this line of irrationality. Sometimes I’ve been known to watch an episode of The Biggest Loser and every time I see a contestant (or worse, a trainer) fall on this crutch of “we must stay positive no matter what” I want to hurl. Why do people believe in this tripe? It’s okay to be critical, questioning, negative, or doubtful. Above all, we must be rational: if you are not meeting your goals you need to identify the problems and form solutions. Your state of mind while doing this plays no role. You can still be a surly misanthrope and lose plenty of weight, just as you can be the most chipper roses-and-puppy-dogs hugs-not-drugs sort that ever walked the earth and still be bloated, unhappy, and unfit if you don’t make the right decisions and sugar coat your situation to yourself.