Overcoming Negative Thoughts of Cave Men
Through our experiences in economic development and the media we’ve witnessed something very troubling. Working with many communities we’ve have noticed people are experiencing a deep sense of loss. A feeling of defeat due to challenges in the global economy along with the displacement of jobs due to technology.
This deep sense of loss has created a decline in our confidence levels, belief in ourselves and our ability to live out the dreams we once had. This is giving rise to the battle of the century – the Battle of the CAVE men!
“CAVE men stands for Citizens Against Virtually Everything.”
You may have seen one of these CAVE men – they are everywhere! They lurk in the back of coffee row always trying to win you over to their way of limited and negative thinking. In fact CAVE men thinking is referred to as Stinking Thinking, having ANT’s in their head (Automatic Negative Thoughts). The hey have lost sight of their own once empowering vision, and have stopped taking action and responsibility for themselves.
“CAVE men have self-perpetuated a fear of change paralyzing themselves from moving forward.”
CAVE men have lost hope believing it is easier to complain than it is to take responsibility and take action. CAVE men can’t stand to see other people’s success. They are the ones leading the charge, creating a backlash towards those that have achieved wealth and abundance.
“CAVE men have the crab in the bucket mentality.”
The crab in the bucket mentality is when one crab strives to crawl out to the top, and the other crabs at the bottom work hard to sabotage their success – trying to pull the crab with vision, taking responsibility trying to achieve success back down to their level. They choose to stay in the bottom of the bucket and have become very cynical and lazy believing that it is someone else’s responsibility other than their own to help them get out of the predicament they are in.
Overcoming Negative Thoughts – What You Need To Do
Yes you can definitely point to and place some blame on external economic factors affecting all of our success. But, most of our difficulties come from the inside. Negative beliefs have made many people a little stubborn, sleepy and stuck.
Through our research in looking for the secrets of successful people, we began to see a common thread. Unsuccessful people (CAVE men) focus their thinking on surviving (getting by); average people focus their thinking on maintenance (holding on); and successful people focus their thinking on progress (how can we grow).
Yes, positive thinking is not everything but it was the difference maker. All things being equal, positive thinking will give you the edge to move forward. The accomplishment of goals is attributed to more than a matter of working harder; it is a matter of believing positively.
“Positive belief has been called the “sure enough” factor. If you expect to succeed “sure enough”, you will; if you expect to fail, “sure enough” you will.”
Our message is plain and simple – we all must harness that belief in self – that get up and go spirit, seek opportunity by exploiting our passion and talents.
With gratitude,
Doug Howorko & George Tsougrianis
