The Top 5 B.S. Excuses for Thinking Negatively

What follows is an overview of the most common ways in which we unconsciously disempower ourselves through the faculty of negative thinking – thereby creating problems that didn’t even exist in the first place.

There’s no more time nor room for excuses; let’s get conscious!

5. “My Negativity is Justified, Because I’m Just Responding Naturally to Negative Life Experiences.”

Kicking off our countdown is the epitome of passive observation.

To assume that “you must react negatively because external circumstances are negative” is to forget that you also respond positively to situations you perceive as being positive experiences.

When you realize this, you remember that you’re actually just being picky inside your own head, deciding what constitutes “happy” or “bad for you – meaning you’re already choosing your perceptions on some level – you’re just currently unconscious of it.

When you realize that you’re already deciding for yourself what “good” or “bad” are in relation to your own experiences, you become conscious of the fact that you’re indeed either allowing your perceptions to bias your thinking (unconsciously), or intentionally (consciously) using your thinking to keep your perceptions in check.

The first is unconscious, foolish, and disempowering.

The second is conscious, intelligent, and incredibly empowering.

When you start consciously choosing and steering your perceptions, your reality changes.

4. “Someone Else is Sad/Mad/Upset, So I Have to Be, Too.”

Similar to the above, the notion that you have to become an emotional chameleon because people around you lack emotional intelligence is tragically self-limiting.

In fact, the only way that this could ever happen is if you lack emotional intelligence yourself.

The socially conditioned “trap” of appearing as seemingly-altruistic as possible via behaving a certain way in certain situations is actually a form of disservice to those who are genuinely struggling.

In fact, you’d be doing someone a much higher service by remaining calm, happy, and positive despite whatever horrible situation you/they have to deal with.

Life is inconsistent and constantly changing; unless YOU establish some mode of consistency within yourself, you by default just become an extension of your environment.

Then, people who understand this abstract principle, and are in a position of influence (advertising, marketing, politics, etc.), can make you do whatever they want simply by manipulating you on the lower levels of emotional reactivity that you unconsciously occupy.

In psychology, this is precisely how abusive relationships function and thrive.

Most people are in abusive relationships with themselves, and they don’t even know it.

This is also how most advertising and marketing is accomplished; people who understand how powerful and impressionable the subconscious mind is quite literally know more about you than you know about yourself.

Most of your relationship with society is abusive. You’ve just been conditioned to view it as “normal”.

The secret to transforming this seemingly-negative situation into a positive one is to reclaim your consciousness, and gain a clearer perspective on how the world actually works.

Then, you can intelligently empower yourself to move through it in your own way.

Learning how to cultivate and temper your emotional intelligence is a fantastic starting point!

3. “There Are Too Many Things Outside of My Own Control to NOT Be Nervous/Upset/Stressed/Negative.”

Then why don’t you start regaining control of your inner world and become positive?

Have you looked into meditation and calming techniques, or are you just claiming all is lost out of intellectual laziness?

By now, it should be no secret that our outer world is the summation of our inner thoughts, feelings, desires, beliefs, etc. To continually adopt a negative reaction to seemingly negative circumstances is to unconsciously participate in a feedback loop with your reality.

You allow yourself to become upset over something, then this attracts more things to be upset about, which makes you more upset…

…So you keep attracting more things to be upset about, which only further pisses you off…

The secret to breaking this cycle lies in remembering that you can consciously choose your response to whatever life throws at you, and that this is actually your greatest point of leverage.

This reinforces the universal principle of choice, and with it comes incredibly high levels of self-empowerment.

If you can choose your reaction to life experiences, what can you NOT choose?! (barring anything that infringes the rights of others/causes harm to someone else, of course).

2. “But What If…”

But what if you’re wrong, and wasting your time thinking negatively for no reason?

Don’t you think that’s infinitely worse than even the worst possible outcome?

Why are you wasting the NOW (with 100% certainty, mind you) by being overly concerned with an illusory, “future” NOW that’s absolutely uncertain?

Don’t you understand that NOW is all there is?

Is uncertainty really enough to make you displace and waste your present finite reality?

You do realize that the amount of information you have for fueling your assumption that something negative will happen has just as much a percentage of accuracy in regards to something incredibly amazing happening instead, right?

Why are you defaulting and placing your bets on negativity (when you’re already working with such limited information), when positivity is actually an equally probable outcome?

With that said, when you don’t have 100% certainty, why don’t you just start assuming everything will work out positively?

Have you actually tried this, or do you have a belief that choosing your perceptions constitutes self-delusion?

Are you not aware of how you’re already deluding yourself by perceiving reality inaccurately to begin with…?

Are you consciously choosing, or are you still unconsciously reacting? Who decides the outcome? Probability, or your perception that you can work with any probability that gets tossed your way?

To quote the late, great Bruce Lee: “To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities.”

1. “I’ll Never Have Enough Time, Money, or Energy to Do X, So What’s the Point?”

If you need to complain, this is proof that your perceptions and your genuine values aren’t aligned – or you wouldn’t be feeling conflicted in the first place.

Also, you’re damn right you’ll never have everything you need as long as you keep perpetuating this attitude toward yourself and others!

Use what you have, where you are, to get to where you want to be.

You do realize that people have literally started businesses which went on to change the world with nothing more than an idea in a garage, right?

If you have an iPhone in your pocket, or an iPod in your bag or car – you’re benefiting from an idea and dream that was born in a garage (Apple).

If you have lots of money and toys but find yourself bored and uninspired, you’re living in the wrong direction.

Nobody is making you work a job you hate, or date someone who insists that you diminish your true self.

Nobody is making you do things you don’t want to do.

You can’t get upset with the world because your unconscious decision making is finally biting you in the ass. Use these opportunities to alert yourself that you need to become more conscious of what you’re doing. This involves some serious humility, which, unfortunately, is a barrier for those caught up in pride.

In the process, you simultaneously become conscious of the fact that if you can control your perceptions, you can control your behavior, which means you are in direct control of the results you receive in this life.

You’re in control of all results because when you control your perceptions, the outcomes stop being important. This frees you up to keep moving, even when outcomes are less than desirable.

To complain that things aren’t going right is to abuse your own power.

You’re like a god who keeps sabotaging himself/herself because he/she forgets that his/her own mind creates his/her reality.

“Damn it! I keep falling asleep on myself! I really should set an alarm or a reminder so I don’t keep passing out…”

Conclusion: To Positivity…And Beyond!

…And you’re in luck, because you come equipped with a built in alarm clock!

This “alarm” is what you experience when you think and feel negatively.

Negative emotions are quite literally alarms alerting you that an increase in perception is required to solve the problem.

You cannot solve negative problems with negative thinking and expect positive solutions.

You cannot solve a problem on the same level from which it originated.

Therefore, you must go “beyond” negativity, and enter the realm of calm, constructive positivity.

To become progressively more conscious of how our negative reactions limit our behavior and results in this life is to choose to empower ourselves. The more we understand, the less room ambiguity has to landslide into negativity.

Whenever you are in doubt about anything, simply consult your inner wisdom and recall that you have the ability to perceive any situation in a positive light.

Not only must you begin doing this to empower yourself toward higher and higher realms of personal progress and potential, but you must do it so you can begin inspiring others to do the same for themselves!

Lead by example, and be the change you want to see in the world. :)