What a great short speech given in this trailer for Oliver Burkeman’s new book.  It crystalizes a lot of things that myself and many other people have been saying for a while, but does it in the fewest number of words I’ve yet seen.   I’ve listened to it half a dozen times today and just wanted to post about it again with a partial transcription: It’s the fact that you’re trying so hard to do something that sabotages your attempt to do it. It seems so obvious to most people that if you want to be happy you should do a lot of positive thinking.  If you want to be successful you should set clear goals.  That in general you should cultivate optimism, and above all, avoid thinking about the fact that in the end, you’re going to die. But there’s a lot of really exciting psychological research that’s turning all of that on its head. It’s emerged, for example, that those books on thinking positive affirmations often make people miserable. And that visualizing your goals can make you less likely to achieve them, because your brain relaxes, it gets tricked into thinking that you’ve already achieved your goal. And it turns out that there’s a long tradition in philosophy and spirituality that’s about embracing negativity. About easing up on all this positive thinking and learning instead to bathe in insecurity, uncertainty, and failure.  To confront your mortality, and to find the enormous potential for happiness that’s lurking inside all of that. More of this, please.
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What a great short speech given in this trailer for Oliver Burkeman’s new book.  It crystalizes a lot of things that myself and many other people have been saying for a while, but does it in the fewest number of words I’ve yet seen.  

I’ve listened to it half a dozen times today and just wanted to post about it again with a partial transcription:

It’s the fact that you’re trying so hard to do something that sabotages your attempt to do it.

It seems so obvious to most people that if you want to be happy you should do a lot of positive thinking.  If you want to be successful you should set clear goals.  That in general you should cultivate optimism, and above all, avoid thinking about the fact that in the end, you’re going to die.

But there’s a lot of really exciting psychological research that’s turning all of that on its head.

It’s emerged, for example, that those books on thinking positive affirmations often make people miserable. And that visualizing your goals can make you less likely to achieve them, because your brain relaxes, it gets tricked into thinking that you’ve already achieved your goal.

And it turns out that there’s a long tradition in philosophy and spirituality that’s about embracing negativity. About easing up on all this positive thinking and learning instead to bathe in insecurity, uncertainty, and failure.  To confront your mortality, and to find the enormous potential for happiness that’s lurking inside all of that.

More of this, please.

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