Tag: Optimism

The OPOrtunity Cost!

 

Though phonetically the OPO in the above caption does sound like the name of a mobile phone, do take that call at your own risk.

 

It’s easy to get curious about what OPO can be. There are various expansions in slang, business , medicine and everyday life.

 

OPO in business can translate to Optimum Positioning Opportunity, in the sense it becomes almost a competitive advantage.

 

OPO in the world of medicine could be Organ Procurement Organization.

 

OPO could also stand for Open Procurement Order.

 

And in everyday slang, OPO is simply Other People’s Opinions. And do people have them????

 

The above out of the way, let’s get down to what I am driving at.

 

In our case, the pecking order of OPO reads somewhat like this: Optimism to begin with, bring on the pessimism in the middle to moderate and ascertain and go back to optimism late in the piece.

 

Often times we ourselves get in the way of getting something started. That is where optimism comes in, as without that, the journey to something new, something better and the world of multiple possibilities wouldn’t come about. Believing in what you are about to do does not guarantee success, but a lack of belief can surely prevent it.

 

Once we hit the road, open the bag of pessimism, that bag which contains questions. Play devil’s advocate. Dig holes. Use the fine tooth comb. Evaluate. Is it misplaced enthusiasm? Raise the bar. Hold yourself accountable. Let the jury be out(standing)!

 

The above accomplished, call your friend back. Suggest you keep it on speed dial. Optimism. Look at progress not just outcomes. And progress requires the courage to move ahead despite the inevitable obstacles and speed breakers. To quote Ryan Holiday‘s book title ” The Obstacle Is The Way “. Perfection is an illusion. Showing up and shipping out is not. Iterations can happen. Enhancements and making things better will follow.

 

Optimism is a tool that, if used wisely, it brings enthusiasm, inspiration and hope to projects that benefit from them.

 

And pessimism is a tool as well–it can help you with budgeting, scheduling and other projects. If it works for you, that’s great.

 

It’s not that optimism solves all of life’s problems; it is just that it can sometimes make the difference between coping and collapsing. Optimism is a force multiplier.

 

” Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists “- Thomas Friedman.

 

ENDS

The Might of a 5 Letter Word Called Might

The Might of a 5 Letter Word Called Might
The natural law is tooth and claw. All else is error.
 
When used as a noun, might means a person’s power or strength, like the might it takes to get a stuck lid off a jar of peanut butter, or the impressive power of a group, like a country’s military might. 
 
Might is also a verb used to express possibility, like when you might go for a walk if it doesn’t rain.
 
Here, the discourse is the latter- the one that expresses possibility.
The ‘might’ in “this might work.” An approach designed by hope, optimism and wanting to take the leap of faith.
 
The propensity to take a call, embark on an initiative, make a generous assertion about things you can’t be sure of.
 
Many hands make light work. Extending the analogy, many a ‘ might ‘, will add up, compound and make things work.

 

Was it Bismark who quoted ‘ Might is Right ‘? Though he was referring to the other might, when used as a noun. We rather use might as a verb. 
ENDS

Taking A Chance Called Luck!

 

As luck would have it..

 

This popular refrain has stood the test of time..both good and bad..

 

For all those of us staking a claim on luck..

 

Good luck seems something that has been unearned..a freebie..

 

And bad luck seems like an excuse..

 

It’s like being between a rock and a hard place..

The false promise of meritocracy decries luck in all its forms..

 

It goes for the countless things that happens to us in our lives..

 

That I was lucky to get that job or the contract..

 

That I was unlucky not to get that big meeting some years ago..

 

Giving credit(or blame) to luck makes it easier to get back to the hard work of making things better..

 

We do remain guarded about our luck..especially if there has been a windfall that has come your way or you have had a prized catch..the feeling that good luck is scarce, only adds to that sense of secrecy. Though you might want to attribute your new state of success to your skill or talent, on deeper introspection, you would be the first one to acknowledge that is not true.

 

So, WTL(What The Luck)?

 

While we are on this mindset you could take a look at this article on The Power Relentless Optimism in BrandKnew.

 

ENDS

 

Go Luck Yourself!

In short, Luck’s always to blame..

 

It’s good to be cognisant of this saying about luck..

 

” You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from. You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help. Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck “.

 

Nothing is a mistake. There is no win or no fail. Everything is MAKE. Betting on lucky isn’t nearly as productive as simply establishing a platform where you can benefit from the occasional arrival of good fortune.

 

Life is full of luck, like getting dealt a good hand, or simply by being in the right place at the right time. Some people get luck handed to them, a second chance, a save.

Luck might not be a strategy, but setting yourself up to be lucky might be. The luck as tactic can be a workable tool if you are bringing in your deep work, resilience, showing up and shipping out and be on a perennial path of exploration and discovery. If you maintain that consistency, chances are high that you would get lucky more often than not. But that is very different from the default mindset that there is a correlation between past behaviour and lucky outcomes.

 

If you show up with good work and generous action, again and again, sooner or later something that appears to others to be luck will appear. So, go for it!

 

I urge you to read this article on Relentless Optimism in BrandKnew

 

ENDS

 

AWEptimism V PAUSEmism

Ideally, conventional phonetics would have called this out as Optimism V Pessimism. That being said, ideal is only wishful thinking. Better get used to shock and awe.

 

A posture. A stance. A position. About what to expect.

 

A response(or reaction) to external events or triggers.

 

Sensing the reality on the ground, an obligation to make a decision based on what to expect.
That does not though explain why different people, similarly informed, adopt an optimistic mood or a pessimistic one.
In fact, that mood is a choice. And it’s one that determines how we will behave.
Optimism is a tool that permits us to solve problems more effectively. If used wisely, it brings enthusiasm, inspiration and hope to projects that benefit from them.
And pessimism(believe it or not) is a tool as well– it can help you with budgeting, scheduling and other projects. If it works for you, that’s great.
Choose your tools wisely. 

That said, either mood will lead to misguided energy and poor decisions.

But if we can be thoughtful about optimism as a tactic, the focus and energy it brings can solve problems that others might simply walk away from. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

 

Our pessimism might not be an accurate diagnosis of the past. Baggage carried forward. It might simply be a way we’re using to produce a future we’re not happy with.

 

“What people forget is a journey to nowhere starts with a single step, too.”

 

BEGINS

 

 

 

 

 

How about changing your ‘ mailing address ‘ ?

When you look back at life, do you pat yourself on the back or turn your back on life?

 

We never forget the postal address of our past. Where we often mail metaphorical letters. Mostly letters of beration. Admonishment. Of the mistakes we made. Of the wrong decisions we took. Regretting the missed opportunities. Spending valuable time wallowing in self-pity.

 

Often taking the easy route or short cut to blaming our younger self for the mess we may be in.

 

Let’s do something contrarian. Begin with changing the mailing address. What would you be saying to your future self?  And how would you feel when you read that letter in a few months or few years from now?

 

May be you would realise that the crisis or cataclysm that you are facing right now did not turn out as badly as you feared. Maybe you would express some optimism that you could convert to action. And maybe you would develop some empathy for your past self, who was just doing the best you could.

 

So, let’s change where we where we post to. Begin at the destination and travel back to a better address. A future back perspective is a much better one than a present forward one.

 

Nothing is a mistake. There is no WIN. Or no FAIL. There’s only MAKE. Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted.

 

In an expanding universe, time is on the side of the outcast. Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that without changing their address they eventually live in the metropolis. Karma has everyone’s address. Yours is in the mail now.

 

Yesterday has passed. We can treat it as a gift or an asset from our previous self. Having said that, there is no gun on the head. You don’t have to accept it if you don’t want to. Tomorrow is a bigger, better opportunity. But, if you are still defending that stuck project of the past( where you have sunk in big emotional labour among other things), you are not making headway as you can’t show up for the new better. Oh! that sunken feeling!

 

ENDS

 

Creativity is Futureproof !

Did you know? The future apparently is already here, albeit a tad unevenly distributed.

 

Perhaps a lot of us get caught out like a deer in the headlights because the future arrives slowly and then all of a sudden.

 

That said, I can understand the obsession behind predicting the future. But why are predictions popular? Because they appeal to human nature. They create a sense of certainty in an uncertain world.

 

But they are wrong far more often than we assume.

 

Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences(circa 2008) Paul Krugman famously wrote in 1998 ” The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, Most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”

 

That one may have slightly missed the mark 😀. Well, well, the best of them can’t get the future right, so what are we crowing about? The problem isn’t just with experts. No one is great at predicting the future. Much of life can’t be forecasted, diagrammed, or reduced to a PowerPoint deck. When the future doesn’t match our expectations, our projections get thrown out (or worse, they’re still followed).

 

How about changing the narrative from predicting the future to ‘ creating the future ‘? Now we could be talking! And one of the strongest arsenal that you have in your armory in creating the future is ‘ creativity ‘.

 

Creativity is human.

 

It’s global.

 

Creativity is technology-agnostic.

 

It doesn’t discriminate.

 

From people working on the bleeding edge of their fields..

 

To others bringing more humanity to technology and industry..

 

The call to action is for creatives to take control of our tomorrow.

 

In it, we’ll seek to recapture the feeling of optimism, not fear,  for the future. Because in the hands of creatives, the future is bright.

 

The creative process is often a matter of changing ‘ What is ‘ to ‘ What if ?’. We first observe the ‘ Status Quo ‘ and then imagine a ‘ Status Novus ‘- Keith Reinhard, Member, Advertising Hall of Fame.

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

 

Every time you have an idea pop into your head and don’t muster the self-confidence to act on it seriously, think about the opportunity cost you are likely to pay.

 

In the balance sheet of creators versus consumers, the world rewards creators by an overwhelming majority. You will get far more from writing 100 blog posts than reading 100.(BTW, all good writing begins with terrible first efforts).

 

Consumption is deceptive because it makes you feel that you are productive when you are not. Artistic progress is the result of creation NOT consumption.

 

The myth going around is that creativity and productivity are mutually exclusive. But they are NOT.

 

So let’s create more than we can consume.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

 

Creativity is an infinite game. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.

 

To survive, to avert what we have termed future shock (Alvin Toffler), the individual must become infinitely more adaptable and capable than ever before. We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots – religion, nation, community, family, or profession – are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust. It is no longer resources that limit decisions, it is the decision that makes the resources.

ENDS