There’s a meme I like. The picture is of an empty glass sitting on a counter, complete with a little condensation ring at the bottom. The caption reads as follows:
“Dear Optimist and Pessimist, while the two of you were busy arguing about the glass being half full or half empty, I drank it. Signed, the opportunist”
I pride myself on being an optimistic person. I’m not always successful at it. I have my down days like anyone else does, but overall, I’m an optimist. Even an opportunist about being an optimist. As the author Simon Sinek recently explained on a Linkedin post, being optimistic is not the same and being positive, or being naive. Optimism isn’t founded in only focusing on the positive, but in a fervid belief of the opportunities of tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
That’s a good thing to focus on right now. There’s not much you can do about today. Today is 90% baked with things that you do not control. What the R-0 is on a complex virus. What reaction or overreaction a company, even the one you work for, might make is outside of your sphere of influence. So is the government’s reaction or latest mandate to quarantine, or how long it will last. Tomorrow, however, isn’t baked yet. You can still control the ingredients that go into it. You can even still plan on finding the ingredients you want to add to it. You can decide right now, that even though you can’t control what happens today, you can spend your time today doing things that will impact tomorrow.
It’s not about being “positive”. It’s not about pretending there are no weeds in the yard. It’s about imagining a yard with far less weeds in it and working towards that goal in a deliberate, intelligent, and calm manner.
I recorded a new podcast this week. I slid it forward in the sequencing because I interview someone very smart, who shared some great thoughts and strategies on how to deal with our “today” that many of us need to hear right now. Go listen to it. https://anchor.fm/salesfix
Many of you reading this might be experiencing fear of losing your job. Some of you already have. Some of you will lose your job. It hurts. It’s no fun. It’s scary. I get it. I’ve been there. Several times. You need a break.
OK, you’ve got 3 days. Then have a drink, dust yourself off, get up off the floor and DECIDE that fear will NOT run your life. Be an optimist by starting to work on tomorrow, because tomorrow is coming, and you need to prepare for it. It will be filled with new opportunities.