WHAT THE MOTIVATIONAL GURUS DID NOT TELL YOU

I am a sucker for motivational book.

All the classics, you name it, I have it. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, How to
Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, and many more.
Long before I started reading these books, I was a negative person. When I walked into a
lift and saw a girl flashing a smile at me, the first thing I did was to turn my head and
look to see if there was a handsome man behind me. If no one was there, I would touch
my head, to feel for a patch of sticky hair gel. If nothing was there, I found for my zipper,
to check if my fly was open. If everything was fine, I looked down on the floor.
Does that sound like you? If that sounds like you, you are a negative person. You are a
loser.
But those motivational books really work! Now, given the same scenario when I see a
girl flashing a smile at me in the lift. I get excited, my head goes ZOOM ZOOM like a F1
racing car. Then I flash my smile and say:
“You have a beautiful smile, as warm as the morning sun. I don’t think we have met. I
live on the tenth floor. Are you going to work?”
Does that sound like you? If that is you, you are a positive person. You are the master of
positive thinking. You always think you are Prince Charming trying to rescue a damsel in
distress.
But is it that good to be always so positive about things?
You see, this is the problem with all the motivational books. They tell you to replace
negative emotions with positive emotions. They tell you negative emotions do more harm
than good. So today I have almost become a skirt chaser. I cannot resist a pick-up line
every time I see a pretty lady. I have to restrain myself from committing adultery every
day.
But, luckily, I remember why grandmother told me. She said: “Never believe everything
you read in the book.” One plus one is not always equal to two but eleven.
What the motivational gurus didn’t tell you is that negative thoughts are good for you if
you know how to use them to your advantage.
Think about this. We think we will drown, so we learn to swim. We think we will die
early, so we buy insurance policies. We think we will die from stage fright so we become
a toastmaster.
What the motivational gurus didn’t tell you is that negative thoughts are for human
survival. It protects you from getting hurt. It is a lie to be told that everything can be
positive. It is even illogical to believe that nothing is impossible. Some people even think
that you can stand in the middle of a speeding train and live to tell the story after they
came back from a three-day motivational course on Neuro Linguistic Programming
(NLP)
So, don’t take everything the motivational gurus say as the gospel truth. Tonight, I am
going to enlighten you and offer you a middle path, to help you find balance between the
Ying and the Yang.
First, let me share with you a story. A little bird was flying in a very cold weather. It was
so cold that the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. Then, a cow came by and
dropped some dung on it. The heat from the dung warmed the bird and it woke happy and
chirpy. It started to sing for joy. A nearby cat heard the bird singing and came to have a
look and swallow the bird.
What is the moral of the story?
Does this mean, when you are in deep smelly dung, you should keep your mouth shut?
NO, the lesson is: You never know what is really good or bad in life. It is like a coin.
There are two sides to everything.
If something seems bad. It may turn out to be good and vice versa. Don’t be too positive
or negative in life. Take the middle path. If you find yourself carried away by being too
positive, think of the negative as well and factor it into your action plan. May the middle
path be with you!