Focus on what is going well or what is going wrong?

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1. "Would things get better or worse if humans focused on what was going well rather than what's going wrong?"

Ibis: I feel like this can be answered by another question: How would we ever improve anything if we only looked at what was right? If we were to all of a sudden avoid and ignore what was going wrong, no one would ever bother making changes in their lives that may be necessary. For example(this contains sensitive info, so tread with caution), let us assume that there is a marvelous woman who has a winsome husband in some aspects. They would be appear to be the most splendiferous couple, but behind closed doors the man abuses his wife. Now, with this sort of mental state, the woman would focus on only the good things, forcing her to ignore the bad, which could quite potentially save her from further abuse.

Being an individual who dabbles in a bit of psychology, I know that a human's body isn't meant to find ways to kill you, but to find ways to help you survive. This is why one feels pain when hurt, because the skin nerves are sending messages to the nervous system that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. We have uncomfortable feelings that bug us, and sometimes hurt us, because our body is trying to survive. When something someone says to you causes emotional pain, your brain sense responses throughout to alert you that something is wrong and that the situation needs to be addressed. 

In conclusion, although it may seem better if we focused on what was going well rather than what was going wrong, it would in fact be quite hindering for it would take away our desire to improve things and get or fix potentially bad situations. 

Risu: Focusing on the good things in life rather than the bad things doesn't necessarily make your life better. It simply makes your view of life more positive. When you are in a situation you don't want to be in, you can either see it as a bad situation or a good situation. If you choose to look at it as an opportunity to make some good out of it, then you automatically view it as a good situation. That doesn't mean that it became a good situation, you simply chose to see how you could benefit from the occasion. In the same way you could view it as a bad situation, which doesn't automatically mean that it's a bad situation. You just can't see a favorable outcome, so you view it as a bad situation.

          It's all about your vantage point, similar to Henry Ford's quote "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." When you choose to see something, or someone, in a positive light your way of thinking will automatically adjust. That doesn't meant the the situation somehow changed, just that you chose to look at it in a certain way.

So yah, if one was in a bad situation they could chose to look at it in a positive light, and that's admirable. But we need to be cautious about the sorts of situations we do this with. If it's just been an unlucky day for you, then it's fine to try and view things in a positive light. However, if it's a potentially dangerous situation it wouldn't be a good idea to try and change your perspective on it. Doing so may get you or someone else hurt.


Feel free to holler at us in the comments if:

- you have a different opinion

-you have a bloody brilliant philosophical question

-you merely enjoy hollering at people

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