However, there is a popular school of professional coaching based around the concept of positive attitude and positive affirmations to achieve professional and personal success. How much truth is there in that kind of teaching?
Positive People Get Promoted
It's not easy to deny the fact that people who are successful are often
positive and sure of themselves. The reasons for this are two-fold: Nobody
likes working with a naysayer that darkens the day with its sole, negative
presence, and managers often notice (and promote) people who aren't scared to
blow their own trumpet and seem genuinely happy to be working for your company.
In other areas of life being positive also has natural advantages: Who would
you prefer as a romantic interest, somebody who is happy to be there and sure
of himself or herself, or somebody who is trying to hide in a corner and
grumbles about everything? Being positive, without a doubt, has its advantages.
But You Need To Work For It Too
However, smiling and being sure of yourself won't get you anywhere
without hard work and dedication, and any lifestyle guru or professional coach
that forgets to talk about the effort required to actually make changes on your
life is not going to be very helpful.
Working 10 hours a day is of course much
easier if you genuinely enjoy your job and know the rewards that will come from
all that work, but you'll still need to do your best. Of course, being positive
about your skills and your life goes a long way towards motivating you to do
your best, but there's no reward without work.
There's No Easy and Quick Way to Success...
But being positive sure helps. While positive attitude is almost a must
have for success, it doesn't mean that the moment you start smiling more you'll
suddenly will get promoted.
Anybody promising you quick and easy ways to
getting rich (or married, or promoted) is actually trying to sell you the myth
of positive thinking, without any regards for your success. - Irene Lizarraga
Yes it's interesting because a positive mental attitude has become so cliched now it often gets overlooked. However, it can work miracles in your life and actually get you motivated to take the action necessary to make changes.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big tennis fan and you often hear Rafael Nadal talking about P.M.A. He actually mentions it so much that it gets a little boring but there's no better example of what it can do for your life. He's down in a match but remains positive (something so many players find hard to do) and eventually ends up turning it round and winning. He's done this so many times it's almost an art form.
His secret? (Just listen to one of his interviews) ALWAYS REMAINING POSITIVE!!
Joe Barnes
Author of Screw the System - Availbale on Amazon Kindle