SMILE OR DIE
How positive thinking fooled America and the World The new book by Barbara Ehrenreich
This really sad and bitter lady who claims to have carried out scientific research on the subject does a great disservice to scientific research which is used as bedrock for credibility.
Ms Ehrenreich claims that positive thinking is a tyranny, it is a quack theory, it creates a cult like culture and positive thinking has made the world miserable. The book goes even further to denigrate motivation.
Positive thinking and positive communication needs defending. I don’t know of any successful individual in sport – in business – in parenting – in relationships – in human conflict or in any field of human endeavour who would not attribute positive thought to be a major contributor towards their achievements or happiness.
Being positive is a state of mind and a healthy one at that. Just a visit to the Selly Oak Hospital to the ward where our seriously wounded soldiers are being treated will demonstrate the power of positive thinking.
The medical world has for years never understood but willingly embraces the psychosomatic power of healing.
Hear me loud and clear, the most evil, disastrous and catastrophic attitudinal behaviour is negative thinking and negative communication. This is ten times more powerful than positive thought or communication. No claims here based on scientific research but just a wealth of experience in life’s laboratory.
If you think you can you are more likely to, but if you think you can’t, you won’t – cliché! Yes but so what.
Here lies the balance – REALISM. Positive thinking does not move mountains but does move people.
Richard Denny
Author of Succeed for Yourself and Motivate to Win
