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Intelligent Optimism Wins In Today's World |
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Articles, How-To's and Interviews -
Spirit and Spa
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Written by Eileen McDargh
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The reality of today's world seems to leave little room for optimism. Almost every news story can lead because it does bleed. We hear of critical food shortages in Africa, daily gang deaths on city streets, the profiteering from child pornography, and the climatic disasters prompted by global warming. Health care costs move up faster than a hummingbird in flight and more children now spout profanities as a regular part of speech. With such negativity, no wonder a 2004 U.S. government survey found that depression afflicts one in 10 adults 14 days a month or more.
You probably get depressed just reading the opening paragraph. But wait! There is hope. Not the cock-eyed optimism that became fodder for a song from the musical South Pacific, but rather what psychologists in France are calling "intelligent optimism." Such optimism does not deny the reality of today's world, but rather seeks to LEARN how to fashion a life amid such difficulties. Martin Seligman, the psychologist who had made optimism and happiness his life's work, would agree with the French: optimism can be taught.
Consider these basic steps:
(1) Focus on what you can control. Don't get carried away by
circumstances you cannot change. You might not change global warming
but you can control your energy consumption. You can't stop the
downsizing in your company but you can arm yourself with marketable
skills.
(2) Reframe the event so that you are not a victim. There is always
another way to view a situation. The flight cancellation that caused me
to miss (and forfeit) a major engagement was not "planned" to "get" me.
It just was. My choice is to figure out what I can do to help the
current client and what I will put in the place of the cancelled work.
(3) Think "enough". When we concentrate on what we don't have, we miss
all the many things we do have. The truth of the matter is that if you
are reading this article, you do have enough computer power. You do
have enough intelligence. You do have enough time.
(4) Cultivate optimistic responses. Like a farmer tending a field,
optimism will never grow unless it is watered, fed, weeded and
nourished. We all have days in which negativity can take over. And,
sometimes, that is a WISE response because it keeps us grounded in
reality. Just make sure it is reality and not the imagination making
extraordinary leaps into conjecture. Weed out that conjecture. Ask
what you can DO to see a result that gives you a sense of power. If we
don't cultivate such intelligent optimism, be aware of reality and
willing to find options, then we might do what Alexander Graham Bell
warned. "Stare so long at the closed door we fail to see the one that
is opening."
(5) Remember the power of generations. Children of depressed parents
are more prone to depression. Children of optimists are more prone to
be optimists. What do you choose to pass along? Even if your parents
were negative, you can break the cycle with stopping, freeze-framing a
situation, listening to the negative self talk, and then literally
giving yourself a different message. Yes, this takes practice but you
can make it a habit if you work it over time.
Ultimately, intelligent optimists understand that change and chaos are
given. They know that "this too shall pass". In the meantime, they
CHOOSE to take whatever action they can within their own sphere of
influence and then settle back. It is enough.
(c) 2005, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all
venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all
links are made live.
Named by Executive Excellence Magazine as one of the top 100 thought
leaders in business, Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE authored one of the
first books on work/life balance. Numerous books and articles later,
Eileen serves the meetings industry as a popular international keynoter
and on the Board of Directors of the National Speakers Association.
You can find products and services offered by Eileen at
http://www.EileenMcDargh.com |
