Welcome to the Official Web Site of
The Society of Half-Glassed Thinking™
Half-Glassed Thinking:
It's All in Your Head!
The key to half-glassed thinking lies in your thoughts, what you think about things, the way you explain things that happen (what researchers call you "explanatory style").
Consider two men who lose their jobs on the same day, when their company eliminates the division they both work for. Both have been senior managers. Both have been with the company for most of their careers. Both have mortgage payments and kids in college. They are about the same age and receive similar severance packages.
Bob is devastated. This company has been his life. His wife doesn't make nearly enough to support them. While his severance package will help for some months, it will be gone all too quickly. His industry is declining, with more jobs going overseas. It will be hard to find a job in the same industry, hard to move into a different industry, and almost impossible to get a job with the same level of responsibility. Sure, he's been at his job for a good while now and there's not a lot of challenge in it any more, but, hey, it was steady work. He's sometimes thought it would be interesting to start a business of his own-he's got good skills, but with his obligations, he believes he needs a steady income. He just doesn't see how he's going to get through this.
Bill is initially stunned as well. He's done excellent work for the company for years. The more he thinks about it, though, the more he thinks that this may be just the "push" he needs. He and his peers, like Bob, had gone about as far as they could in the company where he worked. Bill likes a challenge and the thought of spending the next 10-15 doing what he is doing now was discouraging. He had found himself day-dreaming about starting his own business. He knew he could do it, but had just lacked the courage to take the plunge. Now, with his severance package and his wife's modest income, he just might be able to pull it off. The more he thinks about it, the more excited he becomes.
What is the difference between Bill and Bob? Their circumstances are similar, but their attitudes to what has happened to them couldn't be more different. It is because their beliefs about the circumstances are different. Bob is focusing on the uncertainty, the difficulty of a job transition, and his family's limited financial resources. But where Bob sees impending disaster, Bill sees opportunity. While Bob's glass is half-empty and draining fast, Bill's looks half-full, with a real possibility of becoming filling to the top.
The good news is that we can learn to change our thoughts. How? Read on.