Why choose optimism
I’ve spent most of my life with a glass half empty. In the morning, if I don’t act fast, the negative thoughts pounce. Pessimism has been a calling card, an essential piece of a grumpy social identity.
Pessimism means I get to win either way. Particularly it guards me from “looking stupid.” Which means, by being pessimistic, I get to sound smart. If you’ve identified with me at all to this point, that might sting a little. It did for me. It’s a survival strategy for phantom problems: looking dumb and being wrong.
There is a new strategy I’m trying out: it’s called optimism. While pessimism allows me to stick to the proven, the rational, the known, venturing into optimism means relying on and believing in things unknown. Have you seen Everything Everywhere All at Once yet? At one point, one of the main characters says: “When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naïve. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I learned to survive everything.” This one flips the script. The deliberate choice to be optimistic is still a survival strategy, but one that helps me live a different way, make different choices, care about different things. My pessimism keeps me safe, guarded, comfortable – to a point – but when the safe, the guarded, the comfortable no longer serve me, I find out it’s been the bars of a cage.
What if you entered each client meeting with the mindset that you have the talent, the experience, and the resources to answer all their questions? What if you practiced your new thing 30 minutes/day with the mindset that everything you touch turns to gold? What if each new trial meant an opportunity for more information vs. an opportunity to either win or lose?
Pessimism is a perspective with a negative emphasis; realism is a perspective based on neutral facts. Perhaps the ship has sailed for me to play professional basketball, but I could still join a men’s league.
How can you put an optimistic mindset into practice? Put the work in today for that thing you want down the road. Do not fear getting to the door. I don’t doubt that, by the time you get there, you will find a way to open it.
Go get ‘em this week.