E176 | When Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work

2021-07-05

Positive thinking is overdone and often ineffective when applied to the messy realities of life and leadership. I’m not saying there isn’t a use for it but rather that we should rethink when and to whom we recommend it. Why? Positive thinking can lull us into a false sense of security, make us overconfident and keep us from taking action when we need to. What if instead of judging thoughts as positive or negative we measured them in terms of how productive they are? What if we embraced feelings of anxiety and nerves because it means we care and/or are pushi...

Positive thinking is overdone and often ineffective when applied to the messy realities of life and leadership.

I’m not saying there isn’t a use for it but rather that we should rethink when and to whom we recommend it. Why? Positive thinking can lull us into a false sense of security, make us overconfident and keep us from taking action when we need to.

What if instead of judging thoughts as positive or negative we measured them in terms of how productive they are? What if we embraced feelings of anxiety and nerves because it means we care and/or are pushing our limits? On today’s show we will tackle these questions and many more.

Also, we were thinking… Why is it that we look for physical asymmetries in athletes and clients, but we don’t measure them in our learning or communication? People are the ultimate performance variable so if we aren’t assessing gaps here, aren’t we missing a huge piece of the puzzle?

The Apprenticeship, a two day interactive workshop specializing in how to deal with people, power dynamics, hard conversations and the messy realities of life and leadership is aimed at closing that gap. Check us out at one of the following cities:

Chicago, IL - July 24-25: Just a few spots left!
Seattle, WA - August 28-29: Just a few spots left!
Boston, MA - September 11-12: Available!
Nashville, TN - September 25-26: Available!
Cardiff, Wales - October 9-10
Asheville, NC - November 13-14!

We’d also like to thank our world class sponsors:

SAGA: the world’s first wireless BFR cuffs (Brett20 = 20% off)
VersaClimber: the world’s toughest low-impact workout
Momentous: world’s cleanest, best tasting performance supplement (Brett25 = 25% OFF)

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