As humans evolved and adapted to the environment, our mindsets also followed suit to protect us.
Humans minds have a built in “negativity bias” whereby we typically focus or direct our attention to negative events rather than positive. For evolutionary purposes, this initially made sense: “if I anticipate that there is always a bear in my backyard trying to eat me, then I will be more prepared when it comes”, or “I know that fire can burn me and sometimes burn out of control, so I will be weary of it”.
The negativity bias was a protective mechanism that has now proven detrimental as our environments have changed. Because what was initially put in place to serve us against threats has now adapted to perceive the negative in our surroundings and ourselves more so than the positive.
How many times do you catch yourself looking in the mirror and judging your body, or your technique? How often do you compare your talent to others, and think to yourself that you’ll never be as good?
To combat the negativity bias, we need to flip our mindset. Even though our brain is an organ, it can be treated as a muscle; the more we train it, the stronger it gets. We can train our brain to overcome the negativity bias in the same way we learn to regulate our emotions and habits.
This week, try flipping your mindset. For every negative thought that crosses your mind, I want you to think of the opposing positive argument, or point out 3 positive things that are more important than the one negative thought. When you train your brain to focus on the positive, the world begins to look that little bit brighter.
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