It Pays To Think

George Bernard Shaw said, "Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." I will be writing a whole series here on directing your mind by asking questions, and I will encourage you to do the kind of thinking that can lead to increased determination, stronger motivation, and greater persistence. Those are the feelings that lead to success.

But the price you have to pay is thinking. And not many people want to do that. If you will do it, if you will take the time and think, you can probably achieve more than you've ever dreamed.

What do I mean by "thinking?" I mean asking yourself a good question and not stopping as soon as you've found an acceptable answer. Ask yourself a good question and keep asking. Pondering a good question can completely change your life. Let's look at an example.

William Wells Brown was a slave in the early 1800s, but he had decided to emancipate himself. The first time he escaped, he went with his mother, heading for the Canadian border, but they were caught. As a punishment, his mother was sold to a cruel plantation owner, and Brown never saw her again.

When he finally successfully escaped in 1834, he got a job. This was the first time he was ever paid for work he did, and he was paid 25 cents. This was a monumental event for Brown. With the 25 cents in his hand, he was faced with the first decision of this kind he had ever made in his life. He didn’t know what to spend it on. He carried it for days thinking about it, wondering what he should spend his money on.

His decision, when he finally made it, was a good one. And it was so good because he took his time and really thought about it.

He decided to spend his 25 cents learning to read and write. He bought a spelling book for 15 cents and bought 10 cents worth of candy to bribe kids to teach him.

The simplicity and beauty of this decision is impressive. And his plan worked. Brown ultimately became very literate and well-read, and made it his mission in life to end the institution of slavery.

He went to Europe and gave almost a thousand lectures on the evils of slavery. He wrote newspaper articles and became the first African American to write a travel book, a novel, a play, and a history book.

When he returned from Europe, he spoke passionately and eloquently in the United States about slavery, right up until the Civil War broke out in 1860.

And he was able to do all this because he was literate.

And he was literate because he really thought about what he wanted to do with that 25 cents.

It pays to take the time to think. Ponder a question for days, even weeks or months. Don’t give up if you don’t get any good answers. Don’t settle for only okay answers. Keep thinking until you come up with something really good. It might pay off for the rest of your life.

Optimism — A Cause Worth Fighting For

Four negative biases keep pushing us toward pessimism, cynicism, and defeatism. Most of us have no desire to feel or think negatively but we do it anyway, usually against our will. Why is negativity so difficult to resist? Because the negative biases are built into our brains and the biases are a fixed and inevitable part of the nature of reality.

Pessimism and negativity function like viruses or lampreys, sucking the life out of our naturally buoyant natures. The four negative biases are:

1. the brain's negative bias
2. communication's negative bias
3. reality's negative bias
4. the media's negative bias

Most of us believe we are not pessimistic. But everyone, including you, no matter how hard we have have worked to rid ourselves of it, still has vestiges of the infection still lurking in our minds, and the negative biases are constantly having their influence on us.

The battle for optimism is a lifelong fight, like an epic clash between Good and Evil, taking place in your own mind and in the world at large.

Whether you want it or not, you are playing a role in the battle between strength-giving optimism and insidious, debilitating pessimism. The never-ending battle is noble and worthy and inspiring. When it doesn't feel that way — when it feels like a burden or a hopeless struggle — it is only because of the negativity that infects your thoughts, which you can clean out right now.

If you let these forces (the four negative biases) drive you down into pessimism, cynicism, or defeatism, it has consequences for you personally, and for the people around you. Pessimism is bad for your health, it interferes with your ability to persist and accomplish your goals, and it feels bad.

Your own negativity has the same (but milder) impact on your friends and family (moods, emotions, and thinking-styles are somewhat contagious). Your pessimism or lack of it will strongly influence the explanatory style of your children, influencing their persistence and ability to learn and achieve throughout their lives.

But you, of course, can do something about all of this. You can remove pessimism from your own mind. And you can help others remove it from their minds. And you can also spread the word to the world in general about both the negative biases and their consequences, and also about the undemoralizing technology.

We can restore our lost motivation and bring back the health, the good feelings, the determination, and the energy that was once native to our minds. You know in your heart this is a cause worth fighting for. Never give up.

Put an End to Cynicism and Scorn

THE PESSIMISM lurking in your mind is supported by our popular culture. That's one of the reasons it is so difficult to be optimistic. And the cynicism of the people around you is reinforced daily in almost every avenue of mass communications. In an article by Henry Porter, the British author makes some great points that illustrate the reason we need to commit ourselves to crushing pessimism. His article is entitled, Time to Put an End to This Age of Cynicism and Scorn. He writes:

We don't question why the last couple of generations, brought up in the West with such plenty and ease, with advantages and privileges unimaginable 60 years ago, so often default to pessimism and irony.

Have you ever wondered why? You would think people in a small village in Africa living on the edge of starvation would be the pessimistic ones, but it is us, the affluent. Why? Porter gives an interesting clue:

In popular culture, it is largely a pose which has become a habit we can't shake off for fear of seeming hopelessly naive, of the derisive voice that says human behaviour is never virtuous or motivated by altruism. A gritty modern 'realism', forged in luxury, not by hardship or insight, is required at all times in the marketplace, even though it must be obvious this is a fairly limited tool with which to understand the world and human beings.

This knowing and fearful cool allows for the expression of very little else — hope, joy, unguarded sentiment, compassion, faith in others, sincerity or the love of simple things. In advertising and in comedy shows, it has become the standard patter and does much to exclude real wit and invention. Comedy routines have become exactly that, which is why I find myself sitting through Mock the Week or Have I Got News for You feeling that either I or these courageous troupers of the faux panel game have become, well, a bit jaded.

If you watch enough television, it would be easy to become jaded. There is a tremendous undercurrent of negativity even in the comedy shows. The point of view presupposed by most comedians is so cynical it is hard not to feel yourself infected by pessimism, even as you laugh at the jokes.

In the quote below, I think Porter points out something worth noticing. Namely, that people in real life are not that cruel or selfish or unsympathetic. If you know someone who seems overly pessimistic and jaded, it is worth reminding them of it too. As Porter put it:

Weltschmerz and Cynic Inc have infected so much of the public discourse that you forget people are not like this. They are in the main more trusting, more hopeful, more resourceful and a lot kinder than is ever acknowledged in the public arena.

And the most important point Porter makes in his article is that pervasive pessimism impairs our ability to solve problems. "We don't find solutions," wrote Porter, "because we have given up thinking that we can..."

Cure yourself of your own hidden pessimism, and you become more capable. Help other people cure their pessimism, and you make it more possible for us to solve the bigger problems. The best place to start is: Undemoralize Yourself. Then start helping others cure their pessimism.