How The Myth of Positive Thinking Undermines Writers

Years ago, a coaching client fired me because I don’t believe in positive thinking.

Let me clarify. If “positive thinking” means self-confidence, an ability to see the bright side of things, and the belief that you can make it if you keep trying, then it is one of the best things you can bring to your writing practice.

What I don’t believe is that positive thoughts can make you rich, healthy, and successful, or that visualizing good things makes them happen. This is the kind of positive thinking that is summed up in the so-called “Law of Spiritual Attraction” and espoused in books like Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret. Those ideas are poor practices for writers and, in my experience, people who believe them are much less likely to achieve success as authors than realists.

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Positive thinking (in the “Law of Spiritual Attraction” sense) does not encourage people to do their best. Realistic writers know the market is ultra-competitive and their odds of making it slim. They understand how hard you have to work to get the attention of publishers. They’re the ones who hire editors, take classes, and spend months revising.

The positive thinkers I’ve worked with often show little understanding of the level of competition they’re facing, and the writers who start out with images of lucrative contracts and movie deals in their heads are usually the ones who send out manuscripts that still need work. And why wouldn’t they? If you’re already sure your positive attitude is going to make you successful, what need is there to spend years perfecting your writing?

Exaggerated positive thinking also keeps writers from creating back-up plans. The writer who knows a major contract is a long shot already has Plans B,  C, and D in the pipeline—a list of smaller publishers, a plan to go indie if they have to, a new novel in the works. Positive thinkers are often so sure they’re going to achieve overnight success that, when they don’t, they’re simply stuck.

Finally, positive thinkers tend to get discouraged more easily than realistic writers. I’ve known beginning writers who were stunned when they received a single rejection—and in despair by the time they got five or six. Almost always, they are the ones who give up.

Realistic writers already know they’re likely to get a load of rejections. They’re not shocked into paralysis when they do because they understand that rejection is something all writers experience.

While my beliefs about positive thinking are based on anecdotal evidence from my own work with writers, there’s a growing body of research that supports what I’ve observed.

One study showed that college students who harbored positive images of their future success got fewer job offers and made less money after graduation than those with more realistic expectations.

Other research has shown that people who worry about doing poorly in job interviews or on major exams prepare more—and therefore end up doing better.

“Ceaseless optimism about the future only makes for a greater shock when things go wrong,” writes Oliver Burkeman in Happiness: The Antidote for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.

“By fighting to maintain only positive beliefs about the future, the positive thinker ends up being less prepared, and more acutely distressed.”

The simple fact is this. Success as a writer does not come from positive thinking. It comes from training, talent, and perseverance. If you’re a natural optimist with a cheerful disposition—great! You’re lucky. Keep it up. Just don’t think that positive thinking is going to magically attract success. All the happy thoughts in the world are never going to substitute for hard work.

Source: Adam Alter, “The Powerlessness of Positive Thinking” The New Yorker Feb. 14, 2014.