Realism / Optimism

When I was a kid growing up in the 80s my fave movie of all time was Back To The Future.

At the age of 10, I watched it with my older brother at the Ster-Kinekor on Sea Point Main Road. When we left the theatre, I was jumping around the pavement. I was repeating scenes out loud. I wanted to be Marty McFly, the main character, more than anything.

That dude was so epic. Marty was an outcast, but he was funny and charismatic. He struggled at school. He had weird parents. His father was openly abused by colleagues. He lived in an obscure town and he worked with a crazy old scientist. Somehow through it all Marty remained upbeat, hopeful and optimistic.

A few weeks ago I wrote about cultivating a ‘Habit Of Hope’ in the Heavy Chef entrepreneur community newsletter. That piece was subsequently picked up by News24. Several radio stations and podcasts interviewed me about it, including SmileFM last night and CapeTalk last Thursday.

The message seemed to land with many people, but some folks didn’t appreciate it.

I have received several emails from readers who feel realism is more important than optimism right now. I think that’s missing the point. We have to be both, at the same time.

Some of Heavy Chef’s community members messaged to ask, how does one remain optimistic in the face of such shitty news all the time?

Entrepreneurs thrive on optimism. We can’t look to the future without having faith that our ideas will work. This requires replacing a bad habit (like sugar, or pessimism) with a good one (like veggies, or hope).

I forgot to mention an essential ingredient in the previous article:

Gratitude.

Since December 2014, I have been keeping a daily ‘gratitude journal’. This means keeping a simple list of things to be grateful for every day. Back then, I faced some harrowing challenges (a story for another day) and that gratitude journal saved my life, in many ways.

Forcing myself to be grateful gave me perspective. It taught me how to confront the brutal facts, yet never give up hope.

It taught me to hold two opposing truths at the same time and be okay with that.

Recently I watched a remarkable interview with Michael J Fox, the actor who played Marty in the original Back To The Future film. He has been struggling with Parkinson’s Disease for the past 30 years. He was asked, “How do you sustain hope?”

Michael responded, “With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.”

So, today, let’s be like Marty McFly.

In the face of all the bad news around us, what can we be grateful for?

Peace -