Reverse Engineering Toxic Thinking with Reality-Based Problem Solving

How to avoid false starts in your journey to success and happiness!

What does Nestle’s Qwik Chocolate Powder and Positive Thinking have in common?

Reverse Engineer Toxic Thinking

Chances are when you were a kid, at some point you enjoyed adding Nestle’s Qwik chocolate powder to some cold milk and loved it. Using the frequently misunderstood reasoning of positive thinking, one might conclude that just going for a big spoon full of the powdered chocolate would be even better! 

Sorry! Life doesn’t work that way for chocolate powder or for positive thinking. Disclosure: I am a huge fan of positive thinking and could not envision a successful life without it. Unfortunately, there have been books, seminars, and course promotions pitching the idea that it’s your own fault if you are not wildly successful, and through simply positive visualization,  success will come to you. This is no more true than if you placed a pile of money on a table and visualized the pile growing. Folks, it’s not going to happen!

When you start something, it’s useful to think about where you will be when you get there. The reverse is equally true. Let’s reverse engineer a goal, from its inception to positive thinking about it to reality, and further back.

Positive thinking is a tool best used (and is highly potent) in conjunction with reality thinking. Reality starts with three life buckets: (1) Things you can change (2) Things you can not change and (3) Others you can influence 

According to numerous, extensive, and credible scientific studies, positive thinking creates energy, a path to empowerment, and unto itself, happiness. Happiness is not a static condition but can change and is dynamic. A journey, not a destination.

Negative thinking drains energy, can induce depression, and is a sad way to live. One thought process enhances energy, the other drain’s it off. How important is this? Death is sometimes defined as “that which happens when the body no longer has sufficient energy to function” so I would say energy is pretty important.

Enter reality. Success, happiness, and a better life do fall within category one, things you can change. A blueprint or map for you to follow in order to achieve these things is possible by studying reality. Knowledge is power. Once you understand the reality of the problems to be solved, you will benefit from the energy and motivation of positive thinking for your journey. 

There is an old proverb that says LUCK is an acronym for Labor Under Correct Knowledge. Simply put, we need to define and clearly understand the reality of the objective before we consider positive thinking. 

Problem Solving. As we continue to reverse engineer the outcome of positive thinking, we have arrived at problem-solving. Einstein’s formula when asked how he would solve a difficult problem within an hour was, he’d spend 55 minutes defining the problem and alternatives and 5 minutes solving it. (Which is exactly the opposite of what the vast majority of executives today would do.)  

Of course to apply Einstein’s formula you will need to know what alternatives to think about. Thanks to Six Sigma we have a formula based approach known as the Five Whys and the Five Hows. This approach although widely used to solve manufacturing and engineering problems is highly suited for consultative selling. This proven strategy has been around a long time and was a precursor to Bill Smith and Jack Welch’s implementation at GE as Lean Six Sigma. 

For example, in the late 60’s while working for LaSalle Extension University, I trained salesmen in the psychology of consultative, reverse selling techniques using why/how clauses. 

The short version is you ask why/how five times or until you are at the absolute root of the problem, thus ensuring the action you take will work towards the correct solution. This works beautifully for engineering, sales, and life.

Only at the point of your reality-based solution, are you ready to put the chocolate flavor into the milk!  ie apply positive thinking against the correct set of goals and actions. 

You can literally supercharge yourself using positive thinking against the right set of reality-driven goals without the bad aftertaste of countless false starts born of not thinking it through!  

A Successful Life
Identify the challenge
Develop a solution
Apply principles’ of positive thinking
Take Action
Measure Results
Repeat

The author, Glenn Mitch Sitter, is a resume writer at sslduck.com