Jul 17, 2020
Negativity Isn’t All Bad
I cannot say whether you have thought about this before, but I would feel selfish if I kept it to myself. And so, I trust that this advice will find you well, and help you succeed, as much as it does me.
You know of Negativity or Pessimism, as some may call it, pretty well. They are those thoughts that induce your feelings of fear, frustration and worry. Those thoughts that hold you back from pursuing something by catching your attention and overwhelming you until you become idle.
Avoiding these thoughts is a common practice, but do they ever leave? If they do, how long before they return with a different form? They walk around in different suits each day, pacing themselves as they wreak havoc. Over time, they take away pieces of your will-power and teach you how to become a slave to them.
It is a sad reality indeed, but I must ask you alone this: If you deeply felt that you needed to do something, what then? How would you shy away from something if it started looking for you in your dreams?
I want you to think about a single moment where you battled with Negativity and won. If you cannot think of one right now, let me help you by telling you that those negative thoughts fade away quite quickly, almost instantly. They evaporate into the air you breathe, which makes every breath after feel like some accomplishment. And with every step after, your life goes on.
But then this brings up the question, why were those thoughts there in the first place?
You must know me to be pretty bold, and I wouldn’t share this unless I had an opinion, but I believe that those thoughts exist only to better prepare you for whatever you are about to do.
Trust me for a moment and look at them objectively. You will notice that they make you pause before you are about to do something. They make you think about the worst possible situations and force you to invest time in deeply thinking about something.
You will also notice, that they don’t really stop you from doing something
Rather, they exist only to convince you of whether you should do something, and how you should approach it. They help you understand the risks involved with your success. Isn’t this a better perspective and use of Negativity? I thought so.
But with all that I have shared with you, I have kept the most important for now
It seems to be a law of Nature, but too much of anything is never good. Too much Positivity, or Optimism, would leave you ignorant of failure. Too much of Negativity would leave you ignorant of success. Balance these thoughts well and they will help you go further along your way.
As the great Carl Jung well said: “No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”
If you were to keep any of this for you, let it be these:
Accept Negativity, But With Caution
I thought myself to be cursed with these thoughts until I learned something from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, a great thinker who helped me improve my life. I learned that for someone to hold themselves well, it is only necessary that they know the good and the bad. Knowing the bad isn’t bad, if you use it to do good if you question it until it reveals its purpose to you.
You must know that this is not easy, but it is simple. You have to be brave enough to face these thoughts and not succumb to it. You have to give it just enough of your attention to understand it, and let go after it has served you its purpose. Let it prepare you for the uncertainty that you will face.
“An English traveller relates how he lived upon intimate terms with a tiger; he had reared it and used to play with it, but always kept a loaded pistol on the table.” ― Stendhal
Check Your Intention
Tupac Amaru Shakur helped me put my thoughts into words when I heard him say that it’s always the good against evil. If you’re right and you have good on your side, I really truly believe that nothing can stop you.
Understand your intention before you do something. I know that you have a soul deep within. I know that the good you do makes you feel good and the bad you do makes you feel bad. This moral compass is the greatest weapon you have to stop your Negativity from turning you Evil.
“Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.” ― Plato
This is an opinion, but I really believe this:
Keep Your Negativity For Yourself
I do not know if you have noticed, but people are quite impressionable. If you ram your Negativity onto them, they may be negatively influenced by this. And you don’t know what they may do with this Negativity, so don’t trust it with anyone but yourself. If you wish to confide in someone, do so with a person you feel would truly be able to understand you.
But I became much more careful with the sharing of such Negativity when I learned from Marcus Aurelius’ that there is no greater retreat from the world other than one’s own soul. Others may help, yes, but they only help you understand what’s right. It is you that must ensure that your actions are aligned with your beliefs and that your beliefs are aligned with your soul.
“Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I had to read this from Marcus Aurelius writings a few times before truly grasping it: good and bad things happen to both good and bad people. Each one of us faces our own fair share of it on our journey. But not many have the courage to use Positivity and Negativity to do greater things with their life.
But I wouldn’t be sharing this with you if I didn’t believe that you too are strong enough to have these thoughts serve you. I believe that you have the strength to see them, guide them, and understand them. They need you to be their noble leader, and then they will help you, as they have me, understand yourself better.
“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run —
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it”
- Rudyard Kipling
Invest In Your Existence, Kind Reader.
