Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

Defensive Pessimism Can Prepare You

Defensive Pessimism Can Prepare You

Maybe defensive pessimism can be as effective as strategic optimism in over coming challenges and obstacles?

I am not sure I agree though – for it seems like a fine line to me.

Without optimism you are never going to start difficult things.

But without a dash a pessimism, you are likely to be unprepared.

Understand: Most pessimists fear action, and action has great power.

Psychologist Julie Norem studies two different strategies for handling these challenges: strategic optimism and defensive pessimism. Strategic optimists anticipate the best, staying calm and setting high expectations. Defensive pessimists expect the worst, feeling anxious and imagining all the things that can go wrong. If you’re a defensive pessimist, about a week before a big speech you convince yourself that you’re doomed to fail. And it won’t be just ordinary failure: You’ll trip on stage and then forget all your lines.

-Adam Grant, Originals

Information You Need

Information You Need

You might be scared of the next step ahead in your life, but what if you already have all the information you need?

Next steps can be terrifying to take, I know.

Sometimes it’s a new job or a new child or a new city. And sometimes it’s a devastating loss that you never saw coming.

Maybe you are ready and don’t even know it yet?

Maybe the preparation was in the journey?

When we dream up something where the outcome seems uncertain and we don’t hear God’s voice, what if God isn’t saying anything to us because He’s already said it? Like my time with Adam flying on the lake, I can picture God sitting beside each of us, not confused or afraid but confident we have all the information we need. We may not have had experience with the circumstances we’re presently facing, but He’s allowed us to experience a lifetime of other things to prepare us for what is coming next.

-Bob Goff, Everybody Always

Sterling Terrell