What are the characteristics of a negative operating system?

1.  A negative operating system has a negative focus.

A persistently negative focus creates a consistently negative mind.  When you select a negative focus, you push your life in a negative direction, and there is no limit to how bad your life can become.  Despair and depression become your constant companions if you let a negative focus control you mind.

2.  A negative operating system interprets events in a negative manner.

All events are neutral until you decide what they mean to you.  If you choose a negative meaning, your life immediately becomes worse.  Thinking negative always makes things worse.  A negative operating system takes molehills of adversity and converts them into mountains of misfortune and misery.

3.  A negative operating system searches for the flaws in everyone's character.

A negative operating system searches for the weakness and failures common to all people.  Your bad finder is up and running all the time.  A negative operating system is extremely efficient in this area.  Cynical and critical thoughts take over your mind as you become an expert in identifying the failures and compromises other people make in order to survive.

4.  A negative operating system looks for the bad in everything.

A negative operating system finds the flies in the ointment of life and discovers the dark side of the world in which they live.  It keeps close accounts of just how miserable their life is.  Instead of counting their blessings, they count their problems.  Their bad finder goes on steroids and rules their life.  No matter how good their life is, their bad finder identifies things to worry about.  Their world is full of disaster, pestilence, plague, war, earthquakes, fires, and oppression.  Their bad finder works overtime 24 hours a day watching news channels confirming that the world is in a terrible mess, and the chances for improvement are bleak to nonexistent.

5.  A negative operating system has negative expectations.

The future looks bleak and dark.  Things look like they are going from bad to worse, and you believe there is no limit to how bad your life can become.

6.  A negative operating system is incongruent.

Incongruence literally tears you apart because your mind, heart, and will all head in different directions.  Your intellect, emotions, and will speak with three different voices, and they are all saying different messages.  You head wants one thing, your heart wants something else, and your will is either unwilling, or only too willing, and rushes off on adventures of its own.

7.  A negative operating system has a spirituality based on rules, regulations, rituals, and the need to be right.

People with a negative operating system have a pathological need to be right, and the core of their spirituality is based on rules, regulations, and rituals rather than on love.  Their performance-oriented spirituality tells them everything they can and cannot do.  Their need to be right makes them critical of other people who don't agree with them.  They overlook the fact that if their heart was full of love, and if they sent that love to everyone, their relationships with other people would immediately improve.  Furthermore, if they fell in love with God, and loved him with all their mind, all their heart, and all their strength, their rules, regulations, and rituals would be unnecessary.

8.  A negative operating system has a negative self-image.

People with a negative operating system struggle to create a self-image they can live with, but ultimately, they know their self-image isn't the real thing, and it will eventually collapse like a house of cards.

It's easier to survive the self-image wars when people are young, healthy, and good looking.  Still, when they look closely in the mirror, they are afraid of what they see.  They know the gospel of self-image by heart; image is everything.  If that's true, you better call up your favorite plastic surgeon, because there are some changes you should make.  How about a tummy tuck, maybe a face lift, and certainly it wouldn't hurt to get rid of all those wrinkles.  Unfortunately, cosmetic surgery is only temporary. It won't be long before you need another cosmetic procedure to prop up your faltering self-image.  No matter how hard you try or how much money you spend, it's only a matter of time before you are a casualty of the  self-image wars.  You will be taken prisoner and cast on the trash heap, because if you live long enough, you are going to grow very old and wrinkled, and aches and pains will take over your life.  Eventually an old person is going to move into your body, and the self-image wars will be over, and you will be free.  The irony is that if you had built your life on the fact that you are made in the image of God, and that you are a reflection of his image, all of the drama and pain would have been totally unnecessary.  You would have had a self-image you liked for your entire life.

9.  A negative operating system has poor self-esteem.

A negative operating system sets you adrift on an ocean of low self-esteem.  It's difficult to like yourself when you are negative all the time and struggling to make it through each day.

10.  A negative operating system suffers from power problems.

You lack power to get from where you are to where you want to be.  Although the most powerful force in the universe is God's love, you never connect with it, and so you never experience its transforming power.  You put on a brave face and struggle to do everything on your own.

11.  A negative operating system takes you to a negative destination.

The wheel of change always turns in the direction of what you put into your mind, and when you fill your mind with negative things, you travel to a negative destination.

Excerpt from :

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

David J Abbott M.D.