Tag Archives: New England Journal of Medicine

Stomping Out the ANTs

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to focus more on the positive in negative situations. Reading time: 3:45.

The ANTs are coming! The ANTs are coming! The ANTs are coming!

garfield_mornings_slogan_wallpaper_-_1024x768 Beware of the ANTs (Automatically Negative Thoughts) writes Daniel Amen in his book Change your Brain, Change Your Body.

Like ants invading a kitchen, a few ants ain’t bad “but when you have an infestation, it spoils your day.”

No wonder the most effective leaders stomp out the ANTs. After all that magnet of misery –negative thinking – will pull you down. Consider the overwhelming odds:

In Roget’s Thesaurus, twice as many words focus on the negative (2,286) than the positive (1,051).

In Sisson’s Synonyms, there are six times as many words that mean “to Break” as there are “to Build” (186-26); four times as many words that mean “Sad” as there are that mean “Glad” (110-27) and three times as many words that mean “Bad” as there are that mean “Good” (465-150). Continue reading