In order to reach your dreams, you need the feedback provided by negative thoughts.  Negative thoughts are a source of feedback that shows when you are off track.

Being off course is a normal part of the journey.  It’s impossible to be exactly on course one hundred percent of the time.  As long as you make proper course corrections, you arrive at your destination. 

When you sail on the ocean, you constantly make course corrections.  It’s rare to be able to sail directly to your destination.  On short trips, you may need course corrections every five minutes.  On long voyages, you will probably correct your course only once or twice a day.  The same is true in life.  At times, you may need to make course corrections every few minutes.  However, most of the time, you will only make corrections on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  All of your corrections are based on feedback telling you that you are off course and headed in the wrong direction.

People who reach their dreams constantly look for sources of feedback to find out if they are traveling in the right direction.  If you don’t have feedback, you are like a voyager traveling without maps or navigational instruments, and it isn’t long before you head in the wrong direction.

Negative thoughts are like a video monitor showing that what is going on inside your mind is destructive and unhealthy.  When you monitor those negative thoughts, you can tell if you are getting better or worse.

When your negative thoughts become darker and more frequent, you know it’s time for urgent action.  When your negative thoughts fade and are less frequent, you know things are turning around in your mind, and there is reason for hope.

Cognitive therapists teach patients how to monitor their negative thoughts.  Patients measure their level of negativity in order to know whether they are improving.  Two common techniques for monitoring negativity are easy to perform and allow you to get a good idea of how you are doing. 

One method uses a counting device.  Every time you think a negative thought, you click on the counter.  At the end of the day, you see how many negative thoughts passed through your mind.  With more effort, you can keep a logbook in which you write every negative thought as it happens.  This technique allows you to evaluate both the content and the amount of the negativity when you review how you did at the end of the day.

Use your negative thoughts as a source of feedback.  Negative thoughts can have a positive impact on your life.  Monitoring negativity can make a positive difference.  It will tell you when you are getting better, and it will warn you when you are getting worse.

Excerpt from :

Zero Tolerance To Negative Thinking : Good-by Depression - Hello Positive Mind

David J Abbott M.D.