The Resilience Advantage

CHAPTER 7

Overcoming Your Negativity Bias: Creating Your Future and Not Accepting Your Lot

We are biologically programmed to think negatively. And it is a good thing. Managing potential dangers is a far more important survival strategy than being a Pollyanna and hoping that everything will somehow just work out.

Research on risk and reward tells us that the pain of loss (financial, for example) inflicts much more pain than the amount of pleasure we feel from the successes in our lives, so it makes sense that we protect ourselves against danger and loss. That is important to remember as we build our resilience and recognize that thinking negatively is not a sign of weakness but is instead an indication that we are making ourselves sure we are ...