Pessimism: Negative Goal Setting

That belief doesn’t want you being more positive about anything. You used to be when you were a child, but then your self-awareness increased enough to notice a heck of a lot of negativity around you — parents, teachers, other kids, TV, etc.

It was all a bit glum, gloomy, and depressing. You didn't understand it. It didn't make sense to you. You didn’t like it. So you questioned it a lot — the classic “Why? Why? Why?” stage of childhood, trying to understand the negative ways of the world.

But you were very quickly told it’s just the way things are, life is tough, you’re too young to understand, or to stop asking ‘silly’ questions. And sometimes the grownups didn’t even know why things were glum and gloomy. Eventually you gave up and just assumed pessimism must be ‘true for everyone’ — accepting it as a ‘normal’ part of your identity.

That pessimistic program still lives inside you as an adult — otherwise known as the fear of being ostracised if you question things, hold an original opinion, live your own truth, or are too positive.

This is where you’ll find yourself thinking, what everybody else thinks:

• "Life is tough" (Resignation)

• "You can't always get what you want" (Limitation)

• "That's easier said than done" (Dismissal)

• "It's too good to be true" (Suspicion)

• "They say… yeah but…" (Deflection)

• "They know better" (Deference)

• "It is what it is" (Surrender)

• "I'm too old for that now" (Irrelevance)

• "It won't work" (Defeatism)

• "I'm not cut out for that" (Self-exclusion)

• "It's just the way we've always done things" (Tradition)

• "Who am I to question that?" (Unworthiness)

• "I already know everything about that" (Arrogance)

• "Ignorance is bliss" (Avoidance)

• "That's just a conspiracy theory" (Closed-mindedness).

You'll become your own worst enemy. You’ll make excuses for yourself. You’ll convince yourself out of doing what you really want to do. You won't find your own truth, or know who you are or what you want. You’ll build parts of your life on a lie.

You'll stay closed-minded and unteachable. You’ll reject perspectives that stretch you, avoid conversations that challenge you, or resist feedback that forces you to rethink who you are. You’ll cling to outdated beliefs, even if they no longer serve you. You’ll accept the beliefs and opinions of others as ‘truth’, without doing your own research.

You’ll become strangely addicted to drama, gossip, or ‘glass-half-empty’ perspectives. You’ll automatically label anything that questions your rigid world view, as just a ‘crazy conspiracy theory’.

That sort of pessimism does nothing good for your purpose. It’s negative goal setting. It limits your vision. It distracts your focus. It creates more circumstances to be pessimistic about.

Our Level 2 workshop has an extremely simple but very powerful way to overcome Pessimism and be more optimistic, so you live a dream bigger than what you — or others — believe possible.