Realistic Optimism
A simple strategy for living out your Ikigai.
Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash
Here is a simple strategy for living fully into your Ikigai.
It involves optimism.
Optimism is not false hope. It's a strategy, as I said, for living. Not the pie-in-the-sky kind of optimism, rather one rooted in reality.
I advocate a practice of both optimism and realism.
🌿 Some people would have you choose one or the other. Instead, I offer that believing in one or both is a choice.
And when we hold onto them both, we keep optimism from floating off into naïveté and realism from devolving into cynicism.
I grew up in a pessimistic and fearful environment. As a young man, I embraced the Power of Positive Thinking.
While that approach helped me dig my way out of being negative, a blindly optimistic attitude is equally false.
Instead, it is best to practice realistic optimism.
Realistic optimists face problems head-on while believing those same problems can be solved.
These eight behaviors can help you operate as a realistic optimist.
Realistic Optimists are Solution Focused
Realistic Optimists are Not Afraid to Fail
Realistic Optimists are Future-Oriented
Realistic Optimists are, Well…Realistic
Realistic Optimists are a Calming Influence on those around them
Realistic Optimists Create a Compelling Vision for Themselves and Others
Realistic Optimists are Helpful Sense-makers
Realistic Optimists Ask Great Questions
Incorporating these eight behaviors can help you practice both optimism and realism on your Ikigai journey.
