Discovering The Optimism Within Me Quotes

What a blessing, what a treasured friend that despair turned out to be. It continually crushed my ongoing attempts at manufacturing optimism, slowing me down, leveling me so I could return to love and begin again and again.

How to set a goal. Several decades ago, renowned management consultant Peter Drucker popularized a system of goal defining and achievement known as the SMART Criteria, a mnemonic acronym to optimally structure the setting of objectives. It works for me, it will work for you. I’ve supplemented it with my own spin. It goes like this: Specific. A goal must be clear and unambiguous; without vagaries and platitudes. It must indicate exactly what is expected, why is it important, who’s involved, where is it going to happen, and which attributes are important. Measurable. A goal must include concrete criteria for measuring progress toward its attainment. If a goal is not measurable, it is not possible to know whether you’re making progress toward successful completion. Attainable. A goal must fall within realistic parameters, accessible enough to craft a logical roadmap toward its achievement. However, I would provide the personal caveat that no goal worthy of your complete attention, time, and resources should be too realistic. It should be big. Big enough to scare you. Audacious enough to tingle the senses, keep you up at night, and launch you out of bed in the morning. In preparation for my first Ultraman, I never missed a single workout, primarily because I was scared out of my mind. That said, a goal must be rooted in tangible reality. Understand the distinction between audacious and ludicrous. Relevant. This takes us back to the spirituality of pursuit. A goal must contain personal meaning. You should understand why its pursuit holds importance in the context of your personal growth. In other words, it has to matter. The more it matters, the better. Time-bound. A goal must have a target date and be grounded within a specific time frame. Deadlines create structure, foster a sense of urgency, and focus the prioritization of time and energy. Service-oriented. This is my personal addition to the criteria (so now it’s “SMARTS”). Although a goal must carry great personal meaning, in my experience, the pursuit of that goal is best served when it is also in service to something beyond the self. This can take any number of forms: raising money for a cause you believe in; perhaps a blog chronicling the journey to inspire friends and family. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is the spirit in which you approach it.

Discovering the truth is not a simple matter. There are many sides and layers of truth. There are many complexities, mixtures, and contradictions. There may be only partial truths, not exclusive or universal truths. There may be modified or contaminated truths. But within the context, and despite these limitations, I feel the search must continue. Thus, I ask myself these questions: Who am I really? What have I done? What do I do that is truly good and useful? What do I believe in and why? How well do I know myself and others? What kinds of relationships do I geniunely have and what kind do I want? What is important and meaningful to me? Important and meaningful enough to make me want to keep on living? What difference has it made that I've lived? What contributions have I made that I'm proud of? What values do I hold firmly and unequivically and why those? What talents do I really have? What potentials have I not yet realized? Should I still try to achieve them? How can I balance my optimism and pessimism? What do I know and what do I still want to know about human nature and the human condition? What do I understand about the development and survival of the human race? What does it mean to be fully human and where am I on that scale?

I started asking a question that, after years and years of practice, has become almost instinct to me in times of disappointment and frustration: What tiny miracle is there buried beneath this disappointment? ...Miracle Hunters are relentless. And they understand the difference between expectations and being expectant. They look for tiny miracles everywhere but they stay open to being surprised by what exactly that miracle will look and feel like. They have cultivated what I call "Positive Paranoia" and believe that hidden within the disappointment, the failure, the unexpected change of plans, there is a nugget of a miracle just waiting to be discovered. ...The minute you start hunting for miracles, the entire way you see the world changes.