To have optimism is to look forward to the future. It’s a belief that tomorrow has the potential to be better than today. More than two thousand years ago, the Latin poet Tibullus wrote in a poem, Carmina, “Hope ever urges on, and tells us tomorrow will be better.”
Being optimistic offers several benefits. It helps us consider the future in our decision making today. With a positive outlook on tomorrow, we’re prepared to work today to ensure we contribute to that better future we envision.
The future is uncertain. It’s something to which we contribute to create. Therefore, if you want a brighter future act now in a way that will make that a more likely reality. Bring optimism about the future to fuel/guide your actions today. “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” Martin Luther.
If we don’t believe in better tomorrows, we’re more likely to live for today. Our time horizon shortens. We’re more likely to indulge impulses. Who cares about consequences to choices. The only decision is seeking satisfaction in the here and now.
In essence, we get what we expect. Our expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies. Our optimism invites engagement and effort creating the positive future we see in our minds. Pessimism breeds an avoidance of long-term thinking and focus on the present which means pleasure today and pain tomorrow.
A factor contributing to optimism is a sense of gratitude for where we are and where we’ve come from. If we feel good about our past and present, it’s easier to feel positive about the future. If we are bitter about the past and our present, then our perspective on the future is also likely to be an extension of bitterness.
Because we’re grateful for what we’ve been given, we’re motivated to keep the good times rolling. We have a desire to both stay in and sustain the game. Things are pretty good. I enjoy this game. Let’s keep playing. We’ve found a future worth working for or a tomorrow worth toiling for.
Unfortunately, society seems to seek to shift sentiment away from gratitude. The noise of negative news is everywhere. Negative news promote pessimistic views of which little we can use. News aims to amplify angst and anger. It’s about organizing outrage and breeding bitterness. A victimhood culture that cultivates resentment and entitlement follows. Neither of these inspire positive or constructive actions. It’s like the difference between love and fear. Fear closes doors and narrows perspective shrinking our world into survival only.
Fear fuels pessimism and shuts us down. The future is to be feared. It’s been said that principles are the luxury of the rich. It’s easy to think about others and be generous when you have ample resources. When your resources are scarce, you become scared. Desperation drives deleterious decisions. Desperation depletes discipline. As Daniel Kahneman noted, “People become risk seeking when all their options are bad.” To someone with a dollar to their name and nothing but obligations, a lotto ticket makes perfect sense. It’s their “only” way forward in their mind.
The Paramount movie, Greenland, paints a picture of how people react during an apocalypse. Selfishness runs supreme. Personal protection is paramount. When faced with the end of the world approaching, hope is eviscerated. Selfishness surfaces. Civility retreats. With no hope, we see crime run rampant. Looters pillage and pilfer. In a similar but different approach, we also see young ones partying like there’s no tomorrow. As the religious philosopher Thomas Aquinas observed, “When hope is given up, men rush headlong into sin.” Sin surfaces as the sole purpose of the limited time left. No hope, bring on the dope. No hope might as well take whatever it is I can grope. Our better angels don’t arrive when our view of the future is bleak. We’re locked in on a zero-sum game and taking what we can while we can.
Though pessimists may seem rooted in reality, all their rose-colored glasses see are problems, objections, and obstacles to action. Though they may seem wise or thoughtful, pessimists produce little other than apathy. Yes, pessimists may point out problems. Problems may well be real. However, if all we see are insurmountable problems, we become depressed and demoralized.
A positive of pain is that it points. It indicates that a problem exists. It draws our attention with hopes of some type of constructive action to be taken to remediate it. When something hurts, we’re motivated to do something about it. We shouldn’t ignore it or pretend it doesn’t exist. Awareness is essential to determining constructive action to take.
It’s the same with optimism. It’s not blind, naïve, rose-colored consideration that everything is perfect. It’s adopting a real-eyed view of the world, warts and all. Despite whatever problems exist, the future has the potential to be better because of what I/we will do today. Therefore, let’s focus on what we can do today to make tomorrow terrific. The scientist Donella Meadows captured the targeted outlook of optimism when she noted, “There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair.” Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr. offered, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” The suggestion is not to ignore bad news but to determine how to act to improve things.
Jane Goodall wrote a memoir titled Reason for Hope. Her decades of research studying Chimpanzees in Africa gave us all rich information about animals and humans but her life experience also forged her personal philosophy. In her memoir, Goodall offered, “The greatest danger to our future is apathy. We can’t all save the world in a dramatic way, but we can each make our small difference, and together those small differences add up.”
The idea of owning optimism is judging our beliefs, values, thoughts, and feelings through the lens of do they inspire or inhibit actions. Goodall wrote, “Every single person makes an impact on the planet every single day. The question is: What kind of impact do you want to make?” Goodall’s question is the crux. What is the impact we want to make? We want to inspire action. Pessimism is marked by apathy. Optimism exhibits as a willingness to engage. Pessimism produces cynicism whereas optimism catalyzes contribution. Optimism at its essence is about building a belief that tomorrow can be made better by what you do today. As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious effort.”
Shane Parrish suggested “Optimism is a performance-enhancing drug that’s both legal and free.” Optimism inspires action. Optimists get things done. Parrish wrote in Clear Thinking, “People who are confident aren’t afraid of facing reality because they know they can handle it.” Optimists have a confidence that their actions can make a difference. It’s optimists that see a crisis as potential opportunity as James Clear has noted, “Even bad luck is a source of opportunity—but only if you live each day as if that is true.”
Several thousand years ago a Greek philosopher known as Thales of Miletus observed, “Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still.” In the award winning movie, Life is Beautiful, the protagonist’s purpose is to provide an example of how to try to live a life as normal as possible filled with fun and love even in the most miserable of conditions. The father’s love of his child powers him to try to paint a picture of optimism and hope for his son while surviving the struggle of a concentration camp. The father’s efforts are a contrast to the approach of others. Yet, his efforts do have a positive impact. He has little other than hope to offer, and offer it he does.
We’re left to declare like Churchill, “For myself, I am an optimist. It does not seem to be of much use to be anything else.” Love opens doors and lifts us up. Optimism is led by a love of life and a looking forward to the future. As Alexandre Dumas writes in The Count of Monte Cristo, “All human wisdom is contained in these two words, Wait and Hope.”
In The Business of Belief, Tom Asacker writes, “Napoleon observed that ‘a leader is a dealer in hope.’” A core capacity of a CEO is to paint a picture of prosperity. They heap hope on their team and shine a light on the road to the promised land. Done well, a group’s focus is funneled on a desirable objective which elevates the energy of their contributions. If the question is what is someone supposed to DO, then the answer is Deliver Optimism.
