Is being ‘negative’ really a bad thing?
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told ‘You should stop being so negative! Always look at the positive side!’ by friends. I mean look at how many times we’re told to think ‘positively’ and to ‘always look at the best in everything’ by the media. Pinterest is littered with ‘positive’, ‘inspirational’ quotes that tell us not to ‘doubt’ ourselves and to ‘never be negative’.
We’re so hooked on this rose-tinted, optimistic view of life that we vilify anyone who dares to think critically or think of the worst case scenarios. They’re written off as ‘pessimists’, bitter or debbie downers. And yet, with all this advice on being positive and the number of people claiming to ‘not listen to any negativity’, mental health problems are higher than ever in young people.
Could our obsession with being ‘positive’ actually be causing us to be more depressed? If I speak from personal experience, that’s definitely the case with me. I’ve had far better outcomes when I’ve thought critically about something and thought about the worst-case scenarios than whenever I was being ‘positive’ and blindly ‘hoping for the best’. The problem with always being positive is that there is a good chance you let your guard down a little too much and end up being overoptimistic about an important decision. Ever seen those memes or blogs that claim dropping out of school doesn’t define your success because Bill Gates did so? Yeah, I wonder how many people followed that advice and got themselves into a real pickle.
Whereas thinking critically can help you think more logically and practically. The best systems and decisions in history were made by thinking critically about something.
Now, I’m not saying that we should always have a negative mindset and be critical or suspicious of everything in life. There’s nothing wrong with having negative feelings like anxiety or doubt, we just need to leverage those feelings into helping ourselves think more practically instead of dwelling on those feelings.
