The Pessimistic Optimist
Become “Colorblind” like Albert Schweitzer (The Secondhand Inspiration Project)
The Secondhand Inspiration Project begins with a motivational quote and ventures wherever the creative path meanders.
“An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight…the truly wise person is colorblind.” — Albert Schweitzer
Over the years, I’ve been blessed to meet many interesting people, in-person and online. Many have found success following different paths. One thing they have in common is they are all pessimists. The other thing they have in common is they are all optimists.
I understand how this might seem confusing. How can two incongruent viewpoints exist in the same individual simultaneously? Yet the equation makes complete sense when you consider time as a variable: they have made themselves short-term pessimists and long-term optimists.
What I mean is this — they expect every discrete project they take to fail because the reality is, most things never get completed. They are acknowledging reality and have zero emotional response when a book idea gloriously fizzles to nothing, a bold new business concept just doesn’t work out, or their research paper fails to ever get published.