Walking Barefoot over Hot Coals is Not for Me

I would never walk over hot coals, especially with my bare feet. The risk of being burned is too high to compensate me for the reward of using my mind to accomplish something beyond the laws of physical reality. Or so I thought.

In a New York Times opinion piece from August 4, I learned the truth about walking on hot coals, which makes the whole exercise less glamorous than it was before. 

Last month, in San Jose, Calif., 21 people were treated for burns after walking barefoot over hot coals as part of an event called Unleash the Power Within, starring the motivational speaker Tony Robbins. If you’re anything like me, a cynical retort might suggest itself: What, exactly, did they expect would happen? In fact, there’s a simple secret to “firewalking”: coal is a poor conductor of heat to surrounding surfaces, including human flesh, so with quick, light steps, you’ll usually be fine.

When I was a child and crossing the street by myself was a new, exciting experience, I used to race across from one sidewalk to the other as soon as the traffic light signal turned green. But while I was doing so, I was also aware of the consequences of not being so diligent. Several of my classmates had been hit by cars and suffered broken bones within a year or two of me developing my new skill.

The Times piece is entitled, "The Power of Negative Thinking." Oliver Burkeman, the writer of the piece, is suggesting that positive thinking on its own is not enough, and that in some situations can make matters worse. If I am so focused on succeeding that I ignore the possibility of failure, when failure comes, it will hit me like a sledgehammer.

But the negative ramifications of positive thinking go even deeper. Positive visualization? Sometimes you'll be less likely to achieve your goal. "Cheery slogans?" Don't even bother. As Mr. Burkeman eagerly explains:

Or take affirmations, those cheery slogans intended to lift the user’s mood by repeating them: “I am a lovable person!” “My life is filled with joy!” Psychologists at the University of Waterloo concluded that such statements make people with low self-esteem feel worse — not least because telling yourself you’re lovable is liable to provoke the grouchy internal counterargument that, really, you’re not.

The world of business is not immune from the destructiveness of this way of thinking:

The social critic Barbara Ehrenreich has persuasively argued that the all-positive approach, with its rejection of the possibility of failure, helped bring on our present financial crises. The psychological evidence, backed by ancient wisdom, certainly suggests that it is not the recipe for success that it purports to be.

The day-to-day work environment is also susceptible to the evils of positive thinking (and its first cousin, setting goals):

Even goal setting, the ubiquitous motivational technique of managers everywhere, isn’t an undisputed boon. Fixating too vigorously on goals can distort an organization’s overall mission in a desperate effort to meet some overly narrow target, and research by several business-school professors suggests that employees consumed with goals are likelier to cut ethical corners.

Now that the problem has been laid bare, the next step is to find a worthy solution. My first step, as Mr. Burkeman's piece reveals, is not to be so wedded to any approach about anything that you lose sight of other perspectives and ways to improve upon what you already know.