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Optimism is a Way of Life.
This week’s newsletter is neither spiritual nor scientific, neither fact or fiction. It’s simply a feeling, one of impact and promise.
Despite initial struggles to draft a follow up to my Week 1 newsletter, and my consideration of every opportunity available to me to ignore this commitment to myself, I remained optimistic that if I kept arriving to this blank page, and sitting through the discomfort of not knowing what to write, the words would eventually find me and I’d transcribe them.
I won’t mislead you: optimism alone will not lead you to your definite purpose in life, nor will it bring you the fruits of your strongest desires. It will, however, provide more of an opportunity to accomplish the initiatives you set out to create than approaching those same initiatives with skepticism.
There is certainly a time and place for skepticism. Nonetheless, that’s someone else’s newsletter because here we’re focused on the positive available to us, and creating our own impact.
My optimism, or the concept of being optimistic, isn’t solely responsible for my ability to draft this note to you. Without it, though, I’d likely have given up early into my journey of newsletter writing and thus deprived you of another Sunday morning musing.
I’ve yet to check the analytics on these Sunday sends – it’s only week two. However, I imagine that there are very few readers. I do this to remove the expectation that this is written for others, and that this commitment to create for myself is kept, despite exterior factors such as readership. If I’m willing to let myself down, then I’m likely willing to let others down as well.
I’m far from willing to let myself down – anymore than I already have in this life. And I encourage you to create the same intention for yourself.
Now… where does your mind immediately go with a notion so ambitious as no longer letting yourself down? Were you optimistic about your ability to be consistent in practice and therefore in the execution of keeping your commitments to yourself?
What are the current commitments that you keep to yourself?
An Anecdote.
Most evenings, I’m asleep by 8:30pm. I wake up every morning at 4:30 am (8 hrs). I meditate, briefly, then take my happy ass to a cold plunge. Then I exercise. Then I sweat in a sauna. Then I clean up, primed to begin a productive day.
When I share my rigorous routine with new friends and colleagues, I’m often met with the same disbelief. I always follow their disbelief with an invitation to accompany me for a morning session to this degree of specificity.
Almost always the response is that of self-skepticism: “I could never do that!”
This isn’t to say that this person isn’t capable of joining me in the morning, just because their initial reaction was to immediately limit themselves, nor does it absolutely have to be an indication of their disposition on all things challenging.
It is, however, a conditioned response that reflects a lack of optimism. Which brings the title of this newsletter around:
Optimism is a Way of Life.
It’s a way of life that our conditioning has made it challenging for us to achieve. Nonetheless, with optimism, we all can adapt this way of life as our own.
And it’s of great benefit to do so.
"The challenges that we ignore or refuse to endure often contain the greatest lesson, during the enduring and, if there is a completion, at the end."
The cold plunge at 5am and 42 degrees every morning is quite the challenge. On the other side of 3 minutes, after violently cycling through various self-deprecating thoughts, I reach a state of bliss, of accomplishment, and the rest of my day is significantly simpler.
Prior to dipping a toe in the frigid water, I’m optimistic that the result of this challenge will be well worth the struggle. While gasping for my breath after the initial plunge, I’m optimistic that finding a rhythm in my breathing will quicken my adaptation to the water temperature.
And as soon as I emerge from the tub, I’m reminded that optimism creates a very manageable task of enduring 3 minutes of cold exposure.
If you default to skepticism, then the task in the above example is likely met with a scoff:
“What does cold plunging have to do with optimism?”
I didn’t check for research available to define the correlation between those that cold plunge regularly and their level of happiness. And, again, this isn’t that newsletter.
There is, however, a very easy to research level of dopamine that the body achieves when subjecting itself to challenging physical and mental activities, like cold plunging.
"There is also a distinctive relationship between dopamine and optimism, especially as it relates to motivation."
An Exercise.
Here’s an exercise (one that is universal):
Check in with yourself on your current mood. How does it feel to be you right now? What is bringing you joy?
Or, what is causing you to feel just less than your best?
Collectively, lets take a deep breath, in through the nose, and dramatically sigh through the mouth.
Again.
Now, follow this flowchart to create optimism:
Please don’t expect perfection with the initial efforts of this exercise. You may, and I encourage you to strive for it.
Nonetheless: humble beginnings allow for more growth.
Optimism Leads to Confidence.
It’s also a cheat code. Imagine beginning every thought, each project with an inclination that it’s going to work out, that whatever you set out to create will come to fruition.
That’s called confidence.
If we remain realistic, and optimistic, optimism has the power to create confidence. With confidence, we begin to see the world as a place of creation and the happenings of our world as things occurring for our benefit.
Even the struggles. The struggles become the teachings, and when we approach the struggles with optimism, our resilience increases. When we become more resilient we become more confident. The struggles that test us become more manageable and less of a burden.
Be Imaginative.
Perhaps this reads as delusional. That’s okay – some dissolution is required to be optimistic.
A child born in Brazil believes, or is optimistic, that he will wear the #10 kit for the Brazilian national team.
There are 3 million children born in Brazil a year.
Is this child delusional?
There is a societal belief system that we must consciously choose to ignore. The system exists to keep us complacent and numb us from ambition.
Ambition requires confidence. Ambition requires optimism. Ambition requires imagination.
So be imaginative. And when you work so creatively to imagine yourself as the #10 for Brazil in the World Cup, remain grounded, but be optimistic that it’s all going to work out for you.
Thank you for letting me sit with you.
– mills