November 9, 2014 Damon Hayhow

Think Negative to Excel

 

Introduction
Despite what every coked-up American motivational speaker might say or write, positive thinking will set you up for a lifetime of underachievement and depression. Success is the product of negative thinking.

Negative thinking is the most powerful motivator for chronic over-achievement. Only through seeing what is bad in everything can you rationally prioritise what needs to be improved. It is the man that sees the glass as half empty that either figures out how to fill the glass or dismisses it for more important things. Positive thinkers are still going on about their f*****g half-full glass and haven’t done a god-damned thing since!

Positive thinkers are still going on about their f*****g half-full glass and haven’t done a god-damned thing since!

Negative Thinking for Competition
When it comes to athletic competition, it is the negative thinker that excels because he (or she) is never satisfied. His (or her) performance is never going to be good enough no matter how good it seems to others. So negative thinkers train harder to improve and grow. More than that, the negative thinker is never satisfied with their training methods either. The rate of improvement is never good enough. So they work hard to improve that.

And so they win.

And keep on winning.

And each win is exciting and wondrous because it is an unexpected bonus to the negative thinker. He (or she) experiences the full climactic elation of the win that says their hard work was worthwhile.

But when a negative thinker loses, it doesn’t matter. They never believed their performance was good enough anyway and so losing only reaffirms the need to keep working smarter and harder. They aren’t crushed by the loss because they never expected to win. Negative thinkers go to compete against their own standards. Not those of others.

The Realities of Positive Thinking
And positive thinkers? When a positive-thinking athlete wins an event we always hear in the press the standard positive-thinking-athlete party line: ‘I’ve been visualising this win for months. I’ve seen this win in my head so many times now. I knew I was going to win…’. Blah, blah, blah. The standard positive thinking crap.

So when Mr Positive wins, he isn’t really that phased, impressed or excited – he expected to win anyway. You really have to wonder why he even turned up? He got nothing out of it.

But what about the second and third place positive-thinkers in this competition? The ones that also KNEW they were going to win… but didn’t? The ones we never get to hear from? What happens to the person that loses the event they were so totally convinced they were going to win? Clearly they are totally devastated!

And what of a positive thinkers training? How much effort and passion would you put into training for an event that you already believe you’ve won? What does it matter if you miss a training session or go for the odd wild night out… 3 times per week? Hey, you’ve won anyway. You are great. You’re a champ! You’re a superstar!

You’re an arrogant, deluded tosser is what you are!

This is the lot for positive thinkers. Dull, emotionless wins, absolutely crushing defeats and a life of half-assed training for no apparent reason (you’ve won already remember). Sounds great. Not!

Conclusion
Positive thinkers prance around all day happy and joyful in all that is wonderful. By always finding the positive in everything they are never motivated to do anything. Everything is just fine so why bother? Then reality finally bites them in the ass and they are mortified by it.

Negative thinkers get to work making themselves and their world into what they want it to be. They realise that the good stuff is already taken care of and it is the bad that needs work and attention. Their efforts are rationally directed and their successes never ending. Negative thinkers are the over-achievers of the world.

Wake up and smell the dead bodies! The world is a shit-hole and you suck. So go and fix it!

Damon Hayhow

Damon Hayhow has been in the body recomposition (Recomp) and bodybuilding industry for 30 years as a coach, competitor, gym owner, teacher, sponsor, show promoter, judge and MC. He has won National competitions in both powerlifting and bodybuilding, set world records, and coached others to the same success in strength sport and physique competition.

Body recomposition diet and training concepts based on logic and reason; not scientism