“Bah, humbug!” We All Need Words on how a can’t-do attitude will help your writing.
’Tis the season to be jolly. Good will, good cheer, good tidings to all men, women, children and pets. Pah. All this tinsel-wrapped positivity is tiring. We’re told time and time again to look on the bright side, but we’ve been looking and it’s all, well, a bit bland.
We like a bit of negative thinking. It has more oomph. It makes for interesting views, different angles and new perspectives. And it packs a punch. Imagine the Ten Commandments without the ‘thou shalt nots’. They’d boil down to ten different ways of saying ‘thou shalt be nice’. (Please.)
We’re conditioned to look for the silver linings in everything, to the point where it seems pretty clear cut: negativity = bad, positivity = good. A whole self-help industry peddles these myths, as US author (and School of Life sermon star) Barbara Ehrenreich sums up in the title of the book she wrote after she was diagnosed with cancer: “Smile or die”. Frustrated by the expectation that she should be relentlessly positive about her illness, she delved into America’s self-help industry and found that these reasons to be cheerful can do more harm than good. And as Richard Wiseman says in 59 Seconds: “Attempting to ‘think yourself happy’ by suppressing negative thoughts can make people obsess on the very thing that makes them unhappy.”
Negativity gets a bad rap. But it shouldn’t. It can also be practical, pragmatic and realistic. And funny. Imagine the British sense of humour without a healthy dose of cynicism. A whole guffaw of comedians would be out of work for a start. Victor Meldrew and Edmund Blackadder would be reduced to high-fiving, can-do team players and Charlie Brooker’s Guardian columns swapped for saccharine pills of sugar and spice. No fun. No fun at all.
In our day jobs, we see the cult of positivity in the things we’re asked to write. Every company says they’re ‘open’, ‘honest’ and whatever, until they all blend into a big pile of soppy mush. Google’s ‘don’t be evil’ mantra loses all its oomph if you give it a positive spin. ‘Be good’? In fact it’s saying a different thing altogether.
We’ve become obsessed with hiding bad news (a blinkered optimism that Barbara Ehrenreich argues helped contribute to the collapse of the US banks). It’s why you read about ‘efficiencies’ or ‘restructures’ not ‘redundancies’. ‘New call plans’ not ‘your bill’s gone up’. It’s the linguistic equivalent of a smile through gritted teeth. Spoonfuls of sugar to help the medicine go down. And it doesn’t help anyone.
So don’t be afraid of warts-n-all writing. If you’re struggling to pen a dating ad, start with how you’re always late (and say sorry in advance). In amongst the admirable achievements on your CV, sprinkle a little bit of real life to show there really is a human being behind those polished words. We once interviewed someone who wrote “and I’m not as posh as you think I am” after she mentioned her well-to-do hobby. She got an interview for that line alone. No one wants to date or work with Mr/Ms Perfect really and your foibles will help you stand out. Try it.
We’re big fans of negativity. To put it another way, positive thinking sucks. Pass the humbugs.
We All Need Words are running the last 'Words for Life' class of 2011 this Saturday 3 December. A day of putting pen to paper for all those things people never tell you how to write: CVs, dating ads, complaint letters, tweets. There are a few places left if you're feeling wordy...please click here for more information.
Negative thoughts can be a powerful energy that encompasses your entire life. It can cause depression, anxiety and may also trigger other mental illnesses. We feel negativity both mentally and physically. We can feel emotionally drained when negative thoughts are too overpowering.
http://meditationwithmark.com
Posted by: siryoz0 | April 03, 2012 at 03:18 AM