The Beauty of Being Stupidly Optimistic

I’ve come up with a new name for the affliction in my brain; from here forward, I will refer to myself (and those like me) as stupidly optimistic.  ”Stupidly optimistic” describes the condition of being excited about the future with no tangible evidence that it will be any better than today.  That’s me: stupidly optimistic, almost to a fault.

I firmly believe that optimism is a key characteristic of those who succeed in life, but I’m beginning to think it may not be enough to be just plain optimistic; I think you may have to be stupidly optimistic, to push on in full expectation of a better tomorrow in spite of strong evidence to the contrary.  The stupidly optimistic are the ones who never surrender; they find a way to keep moving forward when everyone else has given up.  They meet defeat often, but they’re too dumb to give up.  I admire people like that, and I hope to be counted among them at the end of my days.

I’ve managed to surround myself with some pretty amazing people over the past couple of years, particularly during the last six months, and I would describe every one of them as stupidly optimistic.  It seems that I have little patience anymore for people who are ready to throw in the towel and give up on their dreams, and I spend less and less time with them, even the ones I was close to once.  I like spending time with people who dream big and act boldly.  I like risk-takers and fringe-dwellers, and even the occasional ne’er-do-well.  The rebels are my tribe.

At the end of the day, the only thing that’s going to get you out of bed tomorrow is your faith.  If any of us were to stop and consider the reality of our situation, we wouldn’t bother.  And in that way, I guess, everyone who makes the effort to get up tomorrow is an optimist; that’s a great start, and we can build on that foundation.

I’ll defer to the wisdom of Bob Marley: “Don’t you worry about a thing, ‘cuz every little thing is gonna be alright.”  Ultimately, we all know that statement to be true.  No matter what happens in our life situation, we’re going to be alright.  If we didn’t believe that, we’d be doomed to fail.  Most of the “problems” that we face aren’t matters of life or death, even though that’s how we treat them sometimes.  In fact, most of our problems are matters of convenience or luxury.  Those who really know what it means to struggle don’t have the means to read this blog post; if you do, you’re among the fortunate few who have the means to create a better tomorrow.

So when you read this, embrace your good fortune and choose to greet each new day with a clean slate, forgetting the trials of yesterday, seeking out the good that today holds and stretching out to grasp a better tomorrow.

Be stupidly optimistic; it’s the only way to fly.