Why You Shouldn't Buy In To All The Negative News!

by Bonnie Boots

Unless you live in a cave, you're probably spooked about the economy. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines and even the internet are pounding out a steady drum beat of fear." Boom, boom, boom," they pound. "Gas prices are up. Stocks are down. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid!"

It's almost impossible to resist buying into a message that's broadcast over and over again, day and night. But the key word here is "almost." You can resist buying in to this Chicken Little mind set. And if you want a life of peace and prosperity, you must!

I know that when you hear a hundred reporters and pundits repeating the same message over and over, it seems like it must be true. But here's something I learned from working in media.

At any given time, any given news story has an equal and exact opposite news story.

The fact is, news can only support one story at a time. You can't have a reporter look into the TV camera and say, "This just in-the economy is very, very bad. And in our next segment, economists say our economy is doing well."

It just wouldn't work.

Remember when reporters were running around telling us not to eat eggs? When that was a big news story there were a good many reports and studies coming out that said eggs are good for you. But media could only support one argument-eggs are good, or eggs are bad.

When media has to choose between two equal stories, guess which one almost always wins?

That's right-the negative story.

There's a motto in media-"If it bleeds, it leads."

That's because stories of death and destruction, stories that make people feel afraid, are better at attracting readers and viewers. "Man bleeds to death on freeway" will always attract more readers and viewers than "Billions of men don't bleed to death on freeway."

I don't want to imply that reporters sit around looking through the day's news wires saying, "Let's show 'em this picture of a car bombing. That'll scare 'em good!"

But all media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television and even web sites, live or die depending on how many eyeballs they can attract. When you know that negative stories attract more eyeballs that positive stories, you naturally report on the negative. It's called "giving people what they want."

Giving people what they want is how all businesses survive. If you don't give people what they want, they go away, and they take their wallets with them.

You may be thinking, "Yeah, but the economy isn't eggs. Things really ARE bad. I can see it for myself."

What you're seeing for yourself is the world economy adjusting, something it does in cycles. The dollar goes down. The dollar goes up. It's done it before. It will do it again.

But what you THINK about what you're seeing is being highly influenced by very selective news reporting. And since your thoughts determine your actions, this is a time to be very careful and very in control of your thoughts.

This is a time to remind yourself, many times a day if necessary, that the news you're hearing is being reported by people who need to attract eyeballs. What attracts eyeballs? Bad news.

What you think determines how you act. Negative thinking has a way of being self-fulfilling. If you think the economy is very bad, you may stop investing in your own business. You may stop marketing. You may think it's useless. You may fail---which will prove the bad news you've been hearing is all true.

I've seen businesses go bust even during boom times because the owner ran scared. During another time when the economy was adjusting, some of the business owners I was interviewing told me they'd stopped advertising. "It's too expensive," they said. "And no one can afford to buy anything now, anyway. When the economy picks up, I'll start advertising again."

Guess what? When the economy picked up, those folks were already out of business. Their negative thoughts lead to negative actions-and decisions to stop taking action-- which lead to the demise of their businesses.

You're hearing a great deal of negative news right now. Remember that it is biased. Remember that you can choose what you think about the propaganda you hear. Remember that what you choose to think will determine how you act. And how you act right now will decide whether your future is filled with poverty or prosperity.
 

 
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