By Nicholas
Click on the pictures or diagrams to expand them.
Did the title get your attention? What is “Sinking Thinking”? It is a bad way of thinking. It makes you believe you will fail, that bad things will happen to you, or that you are not a very good person.
I first heard the term when I was listening to a superb motivational tape by Zig Ziglar (check him out). http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/50316.Zig_Ziglar
What people think will have an impact on how they behave. Experiencing negative thoughts all the time is not good, and can cripple the human spirit.
Negative thinking stops people from getting the most out of life and can lead to depression. Too much negativity can be extremely hazardous for people who have managed to escape an addiction such as alcoholism.
Everyone will experience an occasional bit of stinking thinking, but if it occurs too often, it will be harmful. It is even possible for people to think their way out of recovery and back to addiction.
Stinking thinking can include negative ideas such as:
• Resenting other people.
• Bitterness about the past.
• Self-centeredness.
• Blaming other people.
• Feeling superior to everyone else.
• Feeling inferior to everyone else.
• Grandiosity.
• Ill-will towards strangers.
• Focus on the faults of other people.
• Viewing the world in black and white.
• Being overly pessimistic.
• Schadenfreude – getting enjoyment from watching other people fail.
• Blowing things out of proportion.
• Always attributing negative motives behind the actions of others.
This pattern of thinking can be dangerous because:
• It usually means that people are looking outside for the source of their problems when the real culprit is themselves. If people are looking in the wrong place it means they will be unable to find what they are looking for.
• It means that life feels unsatisfactory. Thoughts are a bit like nutrition and stinking thinking is similar to junk food. Those who live on a diet of junk food will end up paying for it. The same is true of stinking thinking.
• Those who are recovering from addiction will be far more likely to relapse if they experience negative thoughts. Even if they manage to avoid a return to alcohol or drugs they could still harm their recovery.
• This type of thinking leads to conflict and prevents the individual form meaningfully connecting with other people. Loneliness can be the source of a lot of unhappiness and it can easily lead to depression. Negativity makes it difficult to both make friends and be a friend.
• Those who think this way will have more stress in their life. If they blow even the smallest problem out of proportion it can mean personal suffering.
Avoid Stinking Thinking. It pollutes your performance.
For more blogs please go to www.NicksDigitalSolutions.com and choose Nicks blog.
For E-Learning material, please go to www.NicksDigitalSolutions.com and choose E-Learning Shop and, in particular, the Pathways to Success option.
Nicholas (Nick Thorne) is the founder of MomohoNZ Limited a company that specialises in Education and Training; Infopreneur; Project and Analysis; and Writing. He lives in Gisborne, New Zealand.