Quote:
Originally Posted by Markus74  Mostly yes. But random chance is also always present.
Because nobody's perfect and positive thinking will ignore, or overcome, the doubts that sometimes come knocking on your door. It's obvious, and it also has been proven, that optimists are more probable to be successful then pessimists. But which of course does not mean that optimists ALWAYS succeed.
Positive thinking also helps you when you're confronted with problems and prevents you from giving up to soon.
That you shouldn't be totally naive neither. There are limits to everything.
Of course it doesn't always work. It's not a Law!  Success depends on a lot of factors. Positive Thinking is just one means that can advance you on the path to success. But PT without ensuing actions doesn't create anything.
What I meant is that people usually look at the few who really scored big and say: "You see, the method worked and it's because of the method that he's so successful!" But that's not the whole truth, since there are other people who have miserable failed with their big dreams. But nobody is taking them into consideration. So it's naive to say it's only because of the method. |
Markus, I obviously very strongly believe in Positive Thinking myself. I only debated it to show you how difficult it is to "prove" to someone who doesn't want to believe it. It is only because there was actually a FORMAL study done with people who were optimistic and people who were pessimistic that a lot of people finally believe PT is the way to live your life. I've done this my entire life long before I heard of this study. The thing is that even with studies like this which "prove" scientifically that people who are Positive THinkiers are wealthier, healthier and happier, it is still very rare to find positive people. The majority of people I find to be pessimists who, of course, don't consider themselves pessimists but rather say "I'm just being realistic." when they really are totally being negative.
In one example I was sitting in my office with a sales rep I hired three months before and asking him about his sales numbers and he proceeded to tell me all the reasons in the world why it's absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to sell any further clients on our product/services. He sat there for over an hour, while I listened patiently, and tried to convince me that the market is totally tapped out, there is no more clients left, he doesn't stand a chance because all the other sales reps already took all the clients, our business model doesn't work, etc. etc. I finally asked him afterwords "If this is true, then why do I need you?" and he said ".......... I guess I'm talking myself out of a job eh?" and I said "If you keep thinking like that, yeah." Anyway, he couldn't change his thinking so he doesn't work us anymore, but the funny thing is that since then (about a year ago) we've already almost doubled our revenues and client base even though he was convinced there was not a single client left out there. All the PT reps stayed behind and got all the clients he was too negative to see. It was scary to sit there and listen to the reality he lives in. It's so negative and depressing, however he strongly defended himself with "I'm just being realistic."