The Problem with Positivity

Before I start this article, I want to say, that I try my best not to rant or be negative in my articles and blogs.

I want to offer positive advice that others can hopefully draw motivation and inspiration from.However, I hope you will allow me to indulge just this once and throw a few personal opinions on “The Problem with Positivity”

You see, there now seems an endless array of motivational gurus, offering advice, life coaching, motivation and instructions of all positive varieties to anyone who needs the support, guidance and encouragement to move forwards with their lives.

And there is no question that there are a vast amount of people out there doing wonderful jobs and offering great support to others in their times of need.

However, when the advice is simply to get people energised and motivated, but without any real direction on what to do with that new found energy, then the advice starts to become less valuable and less effective.

It’s like lighting a short fuse on a cannon – but not giving it a target or any direction to fire – it’s likely just to explode where it sits – or blast off in a random direction that is useless and of no benefit to anyone.

Telling people to be positive, and filling them full of energy and enthusiasm is great – but it’s only half the job. Once enthused – these people also need to be offered direction and guidance on how best to apply this new found zest, otherwise it will either be mis-directed, simply fizzle out or worst still, implode back in on itself. On a recent seminar with John Will, he said, “it’s pointless telling people to be Wealthy and Happy. It doesn’t actually offer any advice on how exactly to make that happen”.

It’s the same as saying to an obese person – Change your diet. Great, thanks for that – but a little more specifics would have been nice. Change it to what exactly? You find this kind of advice is often tendered by those who only have a shallow understanding themselves. It makes them appear knowledgeable and authoritative, but when you delve a little deeper, you find they have no depth or substance from which to back up their initial basic offerings.

If you’re going to be a teacher, an instructor, a guide, in whatever industry and niche you choose, you need to have some depth. When you have this, then you need to offer this in concise and detailed instructions, otherwise your help is simply an offering of little value.

As a martial arts instructor, it’s my job, not only to show and teach a host of techniques, but also to show how they fit together, when they should be applied, the reason for using them and the outcome expected, in order to offer the full understanding and direction to my students.

The problem with positivity and those peddling this type of motivational instruction is that they often leave their requestors with a lack of guidance on the application of this new found energy. If un-used it can slowly fizzle out and fade away – leaving them back at square one and queuing up for another fix of the same……. But then again – perhaps that’s the perfect business model.

Teach me – don’t tell me.

Show me, don’t instruct me.

What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.
- Karl Menninger

Thank you for reading
Stay Safe and Have Fun

Al Peasland
Personal Safety Expert