What is Negative Thinking?

Neg­a­tive think­ing includes any thoughts or forms of self-talk in which crit­i­cism, doubt, low expec­ta­tions and put-downs involved. These thoughts usu­ally stem from our inse­cu­ri­ties that are repeated auto­mat­i­cally by our sub­con­scious many times through out the day. If left unchal­lenged, these neg­a­tive thoughts can lead to lower con­fi­dence lev­els, below aver­age per­for­mance, and dimin­ished men­tal skills.

Neg­a­tive think­ing can have an adverse effect on both of your per­sonal and pro­fes­sional lives because it leads to self-doubt. This self-doubt can lead to prob­lems with decision-making, lack of moti­va­tion and a ten­dency to fail.

Think about what you have learned about pos­i­tive think­ing so far. It’s a pretty pow­er­ful tool, right? Now, apply that same prin­ci­ple to neg­a­tive think­ing. If pos­i­tive think­ing can moti­vate you to suc­ceed, it’s pos­si­ble that neg­a­tive think­ing can moti­vate you to fail. If you are capa­ble of achiev­ing any­thing that you believe, then it stands to rea­son that if you believe you will fail, you can achieve that too.

The main prob­lem with neg­a­tive think­ing is that it is so sub­tle and so auto­matic, which in many times you do not even know that you are being affected by it. For exam­ple, if you are about to launch a new prod­uct, your con­scious mind may be very excited and opti­mistic about it. How­ever, if your sub­con­scious mind is allow­ing neg­a­tive thoughts to slip through day after day, they will even­tu­ally influ­ence you. This slow and steady influ­ence will even­tu­ally lead to a lack of moti­va­tion or even to defeat.

So how do you beat neg­a­tive think­ing at its own game? The first step is to get to the source of the problem.

Its source — inter­nal and external

Neg­a­tive think­ing has two main ori­gins, inter­nal beliefs and exter­nal sources. The inter­nal beliefs stem from any neg­a­tive feel­ings that you may be har­bor­ing. The exter­nal sources, on the other hand, can come from any per­son or event that caused you to become unsure of your­self or your abilities.

Most neg­a­tive inter­nal beliefs stem are come from inse­cu­rity. These inse­cu­ri­ties can be based on actual events, hon­est mis­takes or, more often, mis­con­cep­tions. If these events are left unchal­lenged, they can lead to feel­ings of low self-esteem, low self-confidence and anxiety.

Once you allow a neg­a­tive inter­nal feel­ing to reside in your sub­con­scious, it steadily grows until it has the power to immo­bi­lize you. Then, the next time when you expe­ri­ence a neg­a­tive event, your inse­cu­ri­ties will use that event as fuel to rein­force the neg­a­tive thoughts and feed you up with your neg­a­tive self-talk.