When Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret hit the bookshelves in 2006, it became an overnight sensation, eventually selling over 19 million copies in 46 languages. The book espouses what has come to be known as the “law of spiritual attraction”: The belief that we can become wealthy and successful through positive thinking.
Imagine being able to control what happens to us by thinking the right way! The illness that is putting us through so much pain. The economic downturn that’s ruined our credit. The bus that, even now, is careening toward us as we cross the street. We can stop them, or at least reduce the damage they will do. Listen up, writers: We can all have bestsellers. We just have to learn how to make them manifest in our lives.
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Too bad it doesn’t work. Anyone who’s experienced a powerful loss can tell you it couldn’t have been diverted by thinking a different way. And any writer who’s not looking at life through her happy glasses knows that positive thinking doesn’t get you published, let alone lead to sudden and extreme success. Best selling books come about through hard work, talent, and luck, not positive thinking. Even James Arthur Ray, one of the leading proponents of the law of spiritual attraction, couldn’t make it work well enough to keep himself out of prison.
And yet, here I am, making a pitch for positive thinking. Not because I believe that “through regular meditation and positive, constructive thought, you can make your dreams and desires become reality” as the Spiritual How To website claims, but because thinking positively—by which I mean focusing on gratitude, hope, cheerfulness, confidence, and empathetic joy for others—can be enormously beneficial to our writing and our lives. Here’s why:
Positive thinking leads to constructive action. Success comes from positive action, not positive thoughts. But thinking can play a role in success by getting us to act.
Confidence and hope are powerful motivators for writers. When we’ve suffered too many rejections or hear the voice of the Demon Editor telling us we don’t really know how to write, a good dose of self-assurance and optimism can be the only thing that gets us back to the keyboard.
Writing blocks and dry spells are often the results of focusing too much on the ever-present frustrations and disappointments of the writing life. Turning our sights to the positive—such as the joy we get from writing, and gratitude that we have the opportunity to write—can give us the incentive to get to work.
Positive thinking is energizing. While negative emotions can provide us with fuel, they can also deplete us. Anyone who’s had a bad day, a terrible argument, or a bout of grief knows how draining and exhausting they can be.
Positive emotions, on the other hand, are invigorating. A study by psychologists Sonja Lyubomirsky and Laura King found that one of the benefits of “positive affect”—another phrase for feeling happy—was a higher level of vitality, that happier people “tend to be more social, active, and energetic.” Research on workers in organizations also shows that being in a good mood can lead to feelings of physical, emotional, and mental energy and that employers can benefit by creating workplaces that make employees happy.
Positive thinking feels good. Do I really need to explain this one? Didn’t think so. In a nutshell: Dwelling on your failures and fiascoes—or on the obstacles and stumbling blocks ahead of you—makes you feel like crap. Turn your thinking instead to the fun of writing the next story, the joy seeing your writing improve, and the excitement of sharing your work with your friends or writing group. Allow yourself to simply feel good about writing.
Negative emotions are not bad things. Anger, fear, and grief are part of life and should be acknowledged and embraced. But positive thinking is something to keep in your writer’s toolbox, too. No, it won’t make your every dream come true or “attract” that three-book contract with a major publisher. But it can keep us writers going over the long haul and make our writing lives a whole lot more enjoyable.
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