Forcing Yourself To Think Positively Can Actually Hurt Productivity
VIVIAN GIANG OCT. 15, 2013, 7:01 PM 1,104
If you’re naturally a pessimist, thinking positively will only hurt you professionally. In general, most people assume that happier people work better, outperforming their unhappier colleagues, writes Wharton professor Adam Grant in his LinkedIn post. “We think it’s a good idea to encourage people, but not so fast,” he writes. Surprisingly, both pessimists and optimists perform at the same rate, but their strategies for attaining success are different. Optimistic people set high expectations and benefit from confidence, whereas pessimistic people set lower expectations but their anxiety and negative thinking push them to try harder, according to a series of studies published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study says that “positive mood impairs the performance of defensive pessimists.” “The encouragement boosted their confidence, quelling their anxiety and interfering with their efforts to set low expectations,” Grant says. “When they’re in a good mood, they become complacent; they no longer have the anxiety that typically mobilizes their effort. If you want to sabotage defensive pessimists, just make them happy.”
Adam Grant
Wharton professor and author of GIVE AND TAKE
The Positive Power of Negative Thinking
If you want to achieve a major goal, conventional wisdom says to think positive. Picture yourself delivering the perfect presentation, and absorb the energy of the audience. Envision the ideal job interview, and imagine yourself on cloud nine when you get the offer. Although these strategies sound compelling, it turns out that they often backfire. Many of us are more successful when we focus on the reasons that we’re likely to fail. Read more of this post
