By Jordan Dooley
Last year on New Year’s Eve, I made a resolution to myself to be positive and not to worry.
After the first of January, I woke-up everyday, looked myself in the mirror and repeatedly told myself positive confirmations.
A few weeks later as the first semester drew to a close and final exams quickly approached, I felt self-assured with my new mental paradigm shift.
Whenever worrisome thoughts arose like “I might want to study for my Spanish final,” I quickly dismissed them, promising myself I would ace my exam.
Well needless to say after bombing my Spanish final a few weeks later, my old thoughts reappeared.
My 4.0 GPA was gone along with my dream of being Valedictorian.
Obviously it wasn’t the end of the world, and it took little time for my heart to heal, but I did learn something important.
Looking in the mirror and repeating positive affirmations are not enough to make you as smart as Albert Einstein or as rich as Bill Gates, unless of course you are Albert Einstein or Bill Gates, which I am neither.
I began to think positive thinking isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be and it might actually be doing more harm than good.
Questioning positive thinking is as un-American as badmouthing baseball, apple pie and the free market.
Yet people fork over billions of dollars for seminars, books and life coaches. Do these tools make them happier, healthier or richer?
Maybe the ones selling the books, hosting the seminars and coaching others can answer yes to these questions, how about the rest of us?
I’m not suggesting positive thinking or positive people are evil and need to be condemned or banished, but isn’t there a better way of thinking?
With all the challenges we face in life as individuals, shouldn’t we be embracing “critical thinking” over simply “positive thinking.”
Positive thinking is different from being cheerful or good-natured, it is more believing by focusing on the good, the bad ceases to exist.
By critical thinking, I mean, thinking that clarifies goals, examines assumptions and evaluates evidence.
I’m not advocating for a society full of long faces or defeatist attitudes, as that does nothing to help society’s well being.
On the other hand, realistic curmudgeons may be more valuable to society than phony and deluded people who are unable to face the truth of their problems.
So instead I’m promoting a society full of critical thinkers, people equipped with the skills to face their problems and tend do their real emotions.
Inhabitants of the corporate world feel that the majority of their problems can be solved by positive thoughts, rather than dedication and hard work.
Public agencies like NASA have become so blinded by positive thinking that they ignored repeated warnings from their engineers in advance of the Challenger explosion because they were so busy envisioning a perfect blastoff.
Our society should recognize thinking critically would supply more happiness than will positive thinking.
We have to begin to look at our problems straight in the eye, without sugar coating them or fooling ourselves into believing they’ll go away.
Hopefully with that, we will find authentic joy and won’t have to short cut our way to being happy.
I challenge people to become a critical thinker, balancing between optimism and realism, finding a solution to a problem, and most importantly, being true to themselves.
