The power of positive thinking has been selling books for decades, pushing clicks, is responsible for Tony Robbins and some people are sick of it. The backlash against the positivity does rage in medium articles, forums, and blog around the net. I get it.
Especially after encountering some life coaches who preach the equivalent of sticking your head in the sand to keep your vibe high. Sometimes it feels hard to be positive. We have all seen the news articles.
- July was the hottest month in human record.
- You can’t go to a mall without a kevlar vest in the US.
- There is a turtle somewhere with a plastic straw stuck in its nose.
The neighborhood has really gone downhill.
But, as a former history major, I ask you, was the neighborhood that great, to begin with? We are the species that brought the world Genghis Khan, the Triangle Slave Trade, and World World 1. Humans have always been a real mixed bag.
The universe is pretty chaotic and who knows what will happen next? I am hoping that some white hat hacker cancels all the student loans and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream falls from the sky, personally.
There is a middle ground between smoking a cigarette declaring the god is dead and being a Pollyanna with your fingers in your ears. You can have realistic expectations and still be reasonably positive.
To quote an underrated Joss Whedon show, ‘if nothing we do matters then all that matters is what we do.’
Your life is now. You have been given blessings and opportunities that few in history have gotten by virtue of being born in the computer age. What will you do with it?
Sure, you will probably fail at stuff, your projects might turn out to be harder than you expected, and someone online might say something mean to you. Trolls gotta troll.
I don’t know, call me what you want, but that has never seemed like a good reason to sink your dreams. Failure is a byproduct of trying. It shouldn’t be a deterrent because regrets are worse.
I grew up in retirement town, surrounded by the elderly and I never met one who said, I should have shrunken my goals and did less with my life.
Life is a Choose Your Own Adventure experience. We’re all trapped here and we aren’t taking anything with us when we go. You might as well live it up while you can.
I don’t say these things because my path has been easy, I say this because I have gone through hard times.
Reality can bite. Big deal. Sack up and go for it anyway.
Be a dreamer. Chase your goals, forge a new path for yourself, dance to the beat of your own drum. If you have the moxie and the wit, you might not hit every target you aim for, but you’ll hit more than you think. It’s better than realizing that you existed for decades and never really lived.
Choose your own adventure and live a life where you can say that you did it your way!