BEING POSITIVE CAN INDEED MAKE YOU MORE SUCCESSFUL IN REACHING YOUR GOALS
Many of our clients come in telling us- “I know what to do, but I know I will never be able to do it”. The people who get to their goal always seem to be the ones who are able to stay motivated and positive. This seems to ring true for any new goal- be it weight loss, establishing a healthy new eating pattern or exercise regimen.
Our brain is programmed to look for threats as a survival mechanism and hence pessimism is not far behind. After all, pessimistic thinking alone cannot hurt you right? – it only helps you prepare better because you imagine worst case scenario and are ready for it (that sweatshirt in the car when they predict the 70-degree weather). It also seems to be a twisted defense mechanism to keep your expectations low so you won’t be disappointed- “Well I will just try this new diet for a week – how is this one going to be different anyways?”
What if pessimism itself could actually affect your performance? Martin Seligman from University of Pennsylvania is an authority on this topic. He has conducted extensive research on this topic and is the author of the book “Learned Optimism”. To prove that pessimism could actually affect performance Seligman did an experiment with the Berkeley swim team (made famous by Biondi). He had each swimmer complete one of his/her best events all out. Each athlete was told their time was slower than what they actually completed. They were then asked to re-take the same event. During the second round, the pessimist’s performance actually got worse! The optimists either held on or got better!
In a strange way – pessimism could actually be functioning as a self-fulfilling prophecy. A driving instructor once quipped “What does the rat fear all day? Going into the cat’s mouth. And where does it end up? Exactly!” So next time, you want to succeed at any goal – be it losing a few pounds or changing to a healthy eating pattern – don’t jinx yourself. Keep those negative thoughts at bay!
Seligman takes it a step further in saying pessimists may actually encounter more bad events in life as they are more passive and less likely to take steps to avoid bad events. For instance, you may be put off the health check-up which may have helped catch the disease early.
RD’s Inspiration: Stay positive to Succeed
So how do we beat this sometimes unconscious habitual process? Seligman offers two basic but effective ways:
Distraction: Doing anything that will stop you from dwelling on the negative thought. (snapping a rubber band anyone or thinking about favorite things a la Sound of Music)
Dispute: Dispute the negative thought as if it were a theory -is it really true? Factual? Will you NEVER be able to lose weight? Really? NEVER is a strong word.
So through our journey together on this blog- we are going to inject the power of OPTIMISM to MAXIMIZE our results. We have to give it our very best. We cannot afford to be doubtful and hinder our own success!
Nourish.Transform.Inspire.
Mer & Meena
