Originally posted on LinkedIn, June 13, 2014:
Almost 30 years ago, a groundbreaking study emerged that lent a significant amount of weight to the power of positive thinking. A study in Health Psychology authored by psychologist Michael F. Scheier called "Optimism, Coping, and Health: Assessment and Implications of Generalized Outcome Expectancies," explored how positive thinking could improve everything from one’s mental well being to physical health.
Today, positive thinking is often touted as a core value in one’s business and personal life. Just think about the success of Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 best-selling self-help book, “The Secret,”which after being featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show sold over 19 million copies worldwide.
But the power of positive thinking has also received some backlash, namely the form of writer Barbara Ehrenrich who deconstructed the concept in her 2010 book. Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America & the World.
So is there a happy medium? For most individuals, there’s an achievable balance between maintaining confidence and a positive outlook, while understanding how feelings of doubt will help us better understand the problems we face and open up real questions to the challenges that come before us.
Because here’s the thing: if we’re really honest with ourselves, doubt creeps into our everyday thoughts. We doubt whether we are on the right path; whether we are effective at our jobs, or even whether we’re doing the right thing in our interpersonal relationships.
However, I’ve come to the conclusion that we doubt because it allows us to question to the core every possible perspective and viewpoint. When we discover those questions and answer them, such learning helps us impact the world even more. And not only does doubt help us learn about the world around it, ultimately it helps us learn about ourselves, and allows us to grow.
When considering the ways that confidence, positive thinking, and doubt can help us, think about drinking wine in moderation. A glass of each, even doubt, is good for the heart and soul.
But like too much wine, too much doubt can impair our minds. It can slow and hinder our decision-making process. It can lead to confusion. And ultimately it can cloud the path toward the road ahead.
Let’s delve into some context on how doubt plays a role in our daily lives. For example, doubting one’s existence is ultimately an unhealthy exercise. But allowing doubt to guide a plan of action of how an individual or a team should move forward in a give effort can produce better results than simply relying on the power of confidence.
- •Doubt allows us to discover different paths that may not necessarily be clear.
- •It allows us to explore other plans than the most obvious one.
- •It lets us take stock in what tasks are important and what we should prioritize.
- •It reminds us to reflect on our main goals and purpose as agents of change trying to make a positive impact in the world, especially when we are working in the trenches on a project at hand.
In a special article published this week in the Globe and Mail, psychology professor Justin Weinhardt explained why a little self doubt helps:
“Believe that you will succeed, but always be aware that you may not be putting in the necessary amount of effort. As I tell my students, while people can be smarter than you are, if you work harder than they do, you’ll likely be more successful.”
So getting back to our wine analogy wine, when thinking about a little bit of doubt in moderation, let’s consider the following points.
- It takes hard work and effort to do it better.
- But we may not all get it done at once.
- There will never be enough time in a day to accomplish everything.
- It takes time to find the right people for the job.
- We might not be able to have it all.
Finally, and in the spirit of relating to doubt in context, there is one thing I don’t doubt.
What I don't doubt for a second: our team's heart and hustle to achieve our vision of what we want to be and our values of how we want to arrive there.
Joe Mechlinski is CEO and Co-Founder of entreQuest, where he's helped hundreds of companies prosper through some of the worst economic times in history. Joe's debut book, Grow Regardless, an instant New York Times bestseller, defines strategic growth, change management, and organizational development.
