The Power of Pessimism
Let’s revise expectations.
Why do we expect life to be easy?
To be little stressy, little shitty, little of everything ….
Why don’t we expect life to be hard?
Because we are weak — mentally weak. Because we are impatient — always looking for a shortcut, looking for a hack.
We are not willing to do the work. To work really, really hard on a few things, and make them successful. We assume life is easy.
But it isn’t. At least, not in my world view, and it certainly can help you, too.
By embracing a negative outlook on things, we don’t take the good stuff for granted. Tim Ferriss calls this ‘the practicality of pessimism’.
The stoics call this the negative visualization technique that helped them to be less stressed, more tranquil, and eventually be happier because they simply didn’t expect everything to be great, to be fulfilling, to be happy.
And that’s a real mind fuck. I know. I mean it can be a real mindfuck. It certainly is one for me … But I think it’s a refreshing mind fuck.
So refreshing that I started practicing negative visualization to consider my life less awesome, to take things not for granted and embrace that everything and everyone changes and vanishes at some point — maybe now, maybe tomorrow, maybe next year.
The only thing I take for granted is CHANGE and LOSS.
It might read depressing.
I think by being honest to ourselves and embracing reality for what is, and not what we want reality to be (aka dreaming), we become calm, less stressed and overall happier.
Negative Visualization Technique
Stoics advise us to consider outcomes and results to be less fulfilling. We should stop considering that every step of our journey should be awesome. Should make us happy.
I now believe that practicing a negative outlook on things actually helps me to accomplish more because I am less paralyzed. Less stressed. Less overwhelmed because I expect moments — certainly not all of them, but some of them — to be shitty. Extremely shitty, in fact.
So shitty that I don’t want to start in the first place. But then I remember that it’s the dark side of my life’s journey.
If shitty times hit me, I think: “Where there is light, there is shade” and move on and focus on the next action to solve the issue at hands.
I don’t even reframe the situation at hands as “a challenge” as most ‘positive thinking approaches’ want us to see things. Instead, I consider the situation at hands a fucking problem to be solved.
Maybe it’s such a huge problem that I want to stop but I know it’s not an option. So I am not problem focused but solution orientated and try to solve it.
Not by reframing a problem as a challenge — I don’t doubt that it helps some people, even though I see the limits of ‘positive thinking’ — I prefer to act on the problem, not just reframing it without action.
#EntrepreneurHack: Be aware of a problem. Embrace its shittyness. Solve it and move on and expect another one to come up soon.
Maybe it helps you to revise your expectations. It certainly did for me. Let the next problem be even shittier than the one before. Let’s tackle it. Let’s solve it and feel extremely good afterward.
Step by step. Problem by problem. Solution by Solution. We move (our project) forward.
#EntrepreneurHack: Don’t expect every moment to be fulfilling and to be great. Instead, expect a few moments to be extremely painful, extremely disturbing, extremely paralyzing. If you encounter one of them, be thankful for the lesson they teach you. Move on by focusing on the next action. Focus on a solution of the situation. Don’t focus on the problem.
PS: Book source: A Guide to the Good Life
Share your ❤ below — and respond with your thoughts.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
About Danny: I choose to be happy. I love fearlessly. I practice the Art of Being Entrepreneurial to build businesses — & have a good life. Go to http://StartupGeist.com
Originally published at dannyholtschke.com on May 24, 2016.
