A Gary Vaynerchuk phrase from a speech.
Says it all, doesn’t it?
Strategic optimism, too. Optimism as a strategy in life.
This is in a speech about hard work as a foundational requirement for success.
Optimism generally, though. It’s an attitude that keeps you here, now. It keeps you in action, doing, experiencing. There is no falling back into romanticizing the past, or wistfully dreaming of an impossible (in your own mind) future. No.
Optimism means you pull a weed or plant a tree today because gardens are good. You don’t kick yourself in the ass for yesterday’s garden or get pissed off because this tree won’t throw decent shade for 25 years. You’re happy, planting the tree.
When the kids were tiny they (heh, it was M, really) gave me a sapling jacaranda tree for Father’s Day. We planted it in the backyard of the old house.
Now I can see the jacaranda from the street when I look at the old house. It makes my eyes well up with a strange happiness. It’s a reminder of optimism, of growing, of love, of the past of course. But look what that moment produced: a beautiful tree that strangers now enjoy and will enjoy for decades, maybe even after I am dead.
Let’s go plant some trees. Real and metaphorical.