The Confusion of Positive Thinking

There's a massive amount of confusion about positive thinking.

A lot of people think that if I'm gonna be a positive thinker, I can't acknowledge anything that goes wrong or anything that will go wrong. So here's the answer to the incongruity of being both an optimist and a pessimist.

Smart Entrepreneurs are big picture optimists, but they are detail pessimists. It's kinda like, well I used to fly a lot. I don't know how many days a year I was up there, but I was up there a lot. And I don't have any fear of flying. I think the plane's gonna get there. I don't really give it a thought. I assume that we're gonna take off and we're gonna land safely. We may not get there when we're supposed to get there, but we'll get there. I don't have much worry about the pilot flying to the wrong city by accident. I don't worry about the plane coming apart. None of that bothers me.

So in general, I'm an optimist about air travel, but I'm a pessimist about all the details.

I assume the plane's gonna leave late. I assume they're gonna lie to me about what's going on. I assume they're gonna try and poison me with the food. I assume they're gonna lose my baggage. I assume they're gonna be nasty and abusive to me. I assume I'm gonna get there late.

I'm pessimistic about the details, and therefore I've got little plans for how to deal with all of that, so when those bad things happen, I am well prepared, and as a smart entrepreneur approaches business the same way.

When you plan a project, a campaign and set a goal, you are generally optimistic about getting there, but you have to be detail pessimistic about all of the things that can go wrong in the process and what you're gonna do about them.

You can simultaneously be a believer in Norman Vincent Peale and Murphy's law - one does not void the other, although a lot of people think it does. “You gotta be all one way or you're all the other way.” No, no, no.

You can believe in both. And in fact, you should believe in both. Let me give you my strategies for planning both optimistically and pessimistically using both my “Brass Balls” and “Renegade Millionaire Time Management” courses for free. All you need to do is join my NO B.S. Newsletter today and I’ll give you even more - see all the details here.