How does the 'via negativa' lead to positive energy?

I am NOT…

My team is NOT…

My company is NOT…

My industry is NOT…

Clearly defining who you ARE requires defining who you are NOT.

In this post-conclave episode of The Energy Detox, you'll learn how a theological concept called via negativa can help you sharpen your message, protect your credibility, and shut down false narratives.

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Transcript

(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)

Well, thanks to the papal conclave and the election of Leo XIV, Latin has enjoyed a bit of a bump in popularity recently, because if you've watched any coverage of the Conclave, the election and some of the days afterwards, there's a good chance you've heard some Latin phrases that you might not normally hear, starting with the most famous of them all, Habemus Papam, which means we have a pope.

The master of ceremonies on the balcony of St Peter's, just before the new pope is introduced to the world says, Habemus Papam, we have a pope.

00:30

And there's another phrase that, at least, is my favorite among all of the Conclave related activities, and that is extra omnes.

And that basically means everybody get out of here, extra omnes. And that is said by the Master of Ceremonies inside the Sistine Chapel just before voting begins. And basically he's saying, Hey, if you're not a voting Cardinal, get out of here. You're not welcome. And I admit, in the Sinnott household, over the last couple days, I've been using that with my children when they get loud and rambunctious and I want to kick them outside to play, saying, hey, extra omnes. Get out. You're not welcome here at the moment.

01:03

That being said, some more examples of Latin that you may have come across include an ESPN personality and western Pennsylvania native Pat McAfee, who on his show, while they were talking about the connections between Pope Leo and Chicago sports, attempted to make the sign of the cross, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, but to do so in Latin: in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.

So again, some more Latin that certainly you might not typically find there on ESPN.

01:34

But amidst all of the recent influx of Latin, there is one Latin phrase that I continue to use all the time in my coaching, and that is via negativa, which means the negative way, via negativa. Now this phrase has theological and philosophical origins. It's also connected, in some ways, to art, but also to business and to you as an individual regarding your health and well being. And so we'll tackle some of those various meanings of via negativa. But most significantly here on The Energy Detox, we're going to talk about the way that you can use this via negativa concept to help identify who you are, by identifying who you aren't. To define what your team does, what your company does, what your industry does, by defining what you DON'T do.

02:22

But before we get into the practical application of this, let me wind back and touch on some of the theological, the philosophical, the art and health related items that I alluded to a minute ago. Because if you go back to the origins of via negativa, the negative way it stems from this idea that God is so vast that he cannot be defined using human language. He cannot be comprehended fully by the human mind. And really, the only way that we can approach an understanding of God is by stating what God is not. That's the via negativa, the negative way. So by saying that God is not finite, God is not created, God is not changeable, God is not evil. You can again, get close to some definition of God, even though you'll never fully be able to define Him. And this via negativa, at least the theological version, actually, is connected in some ways, to Pope Leo XIV, because Leo is an Augustinian, and the namesake of the Augustinian order is St Augustine. And St Augustine's writings and his teachings are connected, at least indirectly, to this concept of via negativa, because St Augustine often talked about the fact that, hey, if you as a human, think you have some understanding of God. Well, not so fast, because you cannot comprehend God as a human being. But again, one of the ways you can approach an understanding of God is by stating who God is not.

03:44

And perhaps the best known story underscoring this, maybe it's even a bit of an origin story for St Augustine, is when he was walking along a beach one day trying to comprehend and understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and he comes across a child who's dug a hole in the beach. And St Augustine asked the kid, Hey, what are you doing there? And the kid says, Oh, I'm going to fill this hole up with all of the water from the sea over there. St Augustine, of course, says you can't take all of that water and try to fit it into that hole, to which the child responds, Ah, but isn't that what you're trying to do with the Holy Trinity? Aren't you trying, St Augustine, to take this concept of the Holy Trinity and and cram it into your human mind. Because, guess what? You're not going to be able to do that either. And as the story goes, the child disappears, whether it was an angel or some sort of vision.

The moral of the story is, St Augustine was left with this concept of, hey, wait a second. Yeah, I can't define this vast concept; so that can lead us to this negative way, attacking it from a different angle, if you will.

04:48

And then if you fast forward about 1000 years to the time of Michelangelo, this concept of via negativa also applies to his art and his work, because even though you might know Michelangelo from the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, where, of course, the Cardinals were gathered to vote in Leo XIV, Michelangelo, of course, is known as a sculptor with his perhaps most famous, or one of his most famous, works being the David. And one of the lines that Michelangelo said about the David is that he saw this block of marble, but inside that block of marble he saw trapped this figure of David. And his job as an artist was to unlock this figure by chipping away, literally, at all of the marble, if you will, that wasn't going to be part of the sculpture, basically removing the negative attributes, if you will, to be left with that one positive figure of David.

And from an art standpoint, that's really more the concept of subtractive art, not so much via negativa, but the concept still stands, chipping away at the negative, if you will, to arrive at your destination.

05:52

And if you fast forward a couple hundred years to the writing of the book Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, a book that we've talked about at least once here on The Energy Detox, he takes this concept of via negativa and chipping away at the negative, if you will, and he applies it to life and business. And what he means by that is, hey, if you want to be antifragile, you can't be adding in new complexities, if you will. When you're faced with a challenge, you can't be adding in new approaches and systems and whatever else. You can't be bringing in consultants and advisors and adding this complexity, because if you do, you actually become more fragile when you're faced with a problem. The first thing you should do is take the negative way, the via negativa, and ask yourself, what you can remove?

06:36

And this applies, and these are examples from the book, in the world of medicine, too, where, when you're faced with some sort of health challenge, the temptation, of course, is to take a drug, right? We got no shortage of drugs here in 2025. But he argues that that's the via positiva. You attack some sort of problem by adding something else in, whereas the via negativa, at least first asks, Hey, if you're having some sort of problem, maybe you're lactose intolerant, every time you have dairy, your stomach hurts. The via positiva is to take some sort of medicine so that when you eat dairy, your stomach doesn't hurt, whereas the via negativa says, Why don't you just eliminate dairy from your diet?

07:09

Or again, other personal life examples, if you think about all the stuff that you might have in your home that burdens you, that you feel like you're always just moving around, and maybe that's just me and all my kids stuff, but either way, feels like you're moving stuff around constantly. Well, the via positiva answer to that is to add more shelving, or, God forbid, get a storage unit, whereas, again, the via negativa says, Hey, how can you get rid of that stuff? How you detoxify your life?

07:32

In fact, that's kind of the mantra, if you will, of The Energy Detox, what things are out there from a leadership standpoint, can you remove? Can you detoxify? To simplify things. Don't add on complexity. Don't add on new systems or thought processes or whatever. Just start at least with asking, hey, what can I eliminate? What behaviors can I reduce from my day to day so that I can be more effective?

07:58

So that being said, those are the various applications of via negativa, but today we're going to talk about a version of via negativa that I use all the time with folks, whether they're in career transition or maybe they're an established leader of a team, but either way, it's folks who struggle to articulate who they are. It's folks who struggle to basically define what value they bring, because they're unwittingly taking a via positiva approach. They're layering in all kinds of seemingly positive things about what they do and where they bring value and who they are and what experiences they've had, without taking a moment to take this via negativa approach, that is coming up with a list of things that you AREN'T, coming up with a list of things that you DON'T do, coming up with a list of things that you would never want anybody else to say about you. And by having that list, it helps refine that ultimate argument, that ultimate headline, which, again, I'm not arguing, is negative in nature. I'm not saying you go out there and update your resume or change your LinkedIn profile or introduce yourself by saying, Hey, I am not X, I am not Y, I am not whatever. I wouldn't suggest that Pope Leo would go around saying, Hey, I am not Pope Francis. I am not Pope Saint John Paul II. I'm not Pope Benedict. But I am saying that whether it's Pope, Leo or you, you do need to have an understanding of what those distinctions are.

09:24

And it starts with this simple via negativa exercise, listing out comprehensively all of those things that you are not all of those things that you would hate for somebody to say about you or your team or your company or your industry. And I take this approach again, not just with individuals, but with companies who are out there, again, layering in all this positive stuff that, at the end of the day people can't grasp, they can't understand. Now, again, you think about that concept of God, right? It's, it's impossible to fully articulate who God is. Well, I'm not saying that there's any companies or individuals out there that are God like, but I am saying there's a lot of individuals, perhaps including yourself, that come up with this long narrative to the simple question of, well, who are you? Whereas sometimes the simple answer is to say who you aren't. Sometimes the catchiest and most impactful thing to do is to distinguish yourself from somebody else, or to distinguish your company from another company. Again, I'm not saying that a company like Exxon's mission statement is going to say, we are not Shell, we are not Chevron. But I will tell you that those companies very close to the surface of their headline, their mission statement, they have those differentiators. They have those distinctions.

10:30

And so my challenge for you today is to stop and literally come up with a list of things you are not. To literally come up with a list of things that you would not want your team to be defined as, and then to take that next step and share it with others. Because as a coach, when I commission, if you will, folks to come up with these lists and then they share it with me, well now it gives me an opportunity as a coach to go out and be a set of eyes and ears independently, to identify those times where they might be unwittingly allowing this false narrative to take root, where they might be going out there and again, allowing other people to tell a false story that is the opposite of what they would want. And so too, again, from an industry standpoint, obviously we work in oil and gas, or I should say, most of the audience of The Energy Detox works in oil and gas, and we know that, yes, there are lots of positive things that the energy industry does to lift people out of poverty, to help people flourish, to donate to local charities, to spark economies around the world. We know that oil and gas has all of these positive attributes which are good. However, so often the elephant in the room is left ignored, that being the claims that oil and gas is evil. Oil and Gas destroys the environment. Oil and Gas ruins the world's water supply. Oil and Gas gives kids cancer.

11:48

Whereas if you start with this via negativa approach, that oil and gas is not evil, it does not cause cancer, it does not ruin the environment or the world's water supplies, if you start with that and keep it close to the surface and arm all kinds of industry advocates with that so that they are on guard against those subtle things that they might say or do that could fuel this false narrative. Well, you're going to be far more effective, because only going down this via positiva approach and constantly layering in all of these fluffy, nice sounding things, whether we're talking from an industry standpoint, or you as an individual, well, it's not sustainable, it's not effective, and it's not going to allow you to differentiate yourself.

12:25

So again, my request of you, the homework assignment for you today is to literally stop and come up with a comprehensive list of things you are NOT so that you can better define who you are, what you want to be seen as. And again, this homework assignment isn't just something that I dreamed up, and this isn't something that I haven't done myself, because when it comes to coaching, in my marketing materials, you're not going to find me saying, Hey, I am not X, Y and Z. I am not this coach. I am not that coach. But not very far under the surface, what you will find is the reality that I am not a coach who just decided to do this as a hobby, not a coach who does this just part time. I'm not a coach who entered retirement and figured this was a fun way to make a couple extra dollars. I'm not a coach that's content delivering generic messages about leadership that you can find anywhere else. I'm not a coach who's going to deliver a keynote that I've delivered 1000 times, that you can just find on the internet and save yourself a bunch of time, energy and money, so on and so forth.

13:24

I've taken the time to define who I am not, because, guess what? It makes it a lot easier to communicate who I am in certain circumstances. And so I encourage you to do the same thing. Again, whether you're in career transition and you're struggling to differentiate yourself, and what I'm sure is a very nice sounding resume from everybody else, or whether you're already in leadership position, but you suspect that you have people around you who are, you know, maybe assigning attributes that you are not. Maybe you're not cheap. Maybe you don't want to be known as somebody who can't make a decision. Maybe you don't want to be known as somebody who's wishy washy. Well, guess what? If you don't have that, again, not front and center, but at least slightly below the surface, if you don't have people like a coach or a colleague who's on guard for opportunities where you might be unwittingly delivering a message that you don't want, well, you're not gonna be happy in the long run. It's not a sustainable approach, which is why I am encouraging you today to detoxify your headline, detoxify your message, detoxify the definition of who you are, who your company is, what your industry does, by taking this via negativa, the negative way.

14:27

So with that, I thank you as always, for joining us here on The Energy Detox. I encourage you to come back next time. But in the meantime, I look forward to your feedback about who you are, defined as who you AREN'T.

Leadership, Management, Coaching, Energy, Envronment, ESG, SustainabilityJoe SinnottLeadership, CoachingComment