Optimism Part 11

This is the eleventh and final article in a series on applying The Optimist Creed to help you succeed in your life and career. You can find all ten points of The Optimist Creed in the first article in this series.

The Optimist Creed, Point 10

"Promise yourself to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble."

This point captures the very essence of optimism – “too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.”

“Great,” you say. “But how do I do all that?” I admit it’s not easy. I worry sometimes. Sometimes I get angry. Sometimes I’m scared; and sometimes I let my troubles bog me down. However, as I soon as I recognize the symptoms of worry, anger and fear, I choose to let them go and focus on the positive things I can do to deal with them.

Free will is one of the great things about being human. We can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we will react to it. I choose to react in a positive way.

When I’m feeling fearful I embrace that fear. I admit it and accept it. Then I do whatever it takes to get past it. Recently, I spent a lot of time and effort – not to mention money – to get my new book, Straight Talk for Success, finished.

Every time I write a book I’m a little bit afraid that no one will read it. Or worse yet, people will read it and hate it. However, I can’t control whether or not people read or like my books. I can control, however, the amount of time and effort I put into the writing, editing and design of my books. Suzanne Carlile my editor, and Bobbi Benson my designer, will tell you how I obsess over every detail of my books. I do the best I can to make sure they are the very best I can do.

And you know what? Every book I’ve written is better than the previous one. That’s because I spend a lot of time listening to the feedback I get on my books. I use this feedback to do better the next time. I’m not afraid of negative feedback. I don’t get angry when people tell me they don’t like what I’ve written. I ask them why they don’t like it, and what I can do to make my next book better.

Because I know that by the time a book is published, it’s the very best I can do, I don’t worry about what people will think. I am happy because in my heart of hearts, I know I did the best I could do. I can control my effort. I can’t control how others will receive what I’ve written.

The common sense point here is simple to grasp, but can be difficult to put into practice. Instead of worrying what people think, do the absolute best you can on everything you do. Instead of getting angry when things don’t go your way, figure out what you can do next time to get the result you want.

Instead of being paralyzed by fear, identify what scares you and embrace it. Then do something constructive to beat that fear. Finally, instead of letting trouble get you down, keep working and believing in yourself. Most important, keep moving forward. As the old saying goes “tough times never last, but tough people always do.”

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a movie that really highlighted the tenth point in The Optimist Creed. It’s the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, Jean-Do to his friends. Mr. Bauby was the editor of Elle, the Paris fashion magazine, when he had a paralyzing stroke. He was left completely paralyzed, able only to blink his left eye.

Think about this for a second. Mr. Bauby’s mind was fine. He could still think. Only, he could do nothing physical for himself. People had to bathe him and clean up after him. He was trapped in his own body – what he referred to as being in a diving bell.

As you can imagine, at first Mr. Bauby was despondent and wanted to die. However he found immense strength and was able to write his memoir over a period of 14 months, one blink at a time. His speech therapist arranged the alphabet in a manner that began with the most commonly used letters. At first she, then later his ex wife, would sit with him and recite the letters. When he heard the letter he wanted, he would blink. When he came to end of a word, he would blink twice.

I sometimes find it difficult to write sitting at my computer and will full use of my hands and body. What Mr. Bauby accomplished in writing his memoir is nothing short of remarkable. His ability to write a memoir in such a painstaking manner proved that he truly was “too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.”

Mr. Bauby passed away in 1997 shortly after his book was published. However, his book and movie, both called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, are a testament to the spirit of man, not to mention the power of optimism. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert called Mr. Bauby’s accomplishment “heroic”. I agree.

Mr. Bauby’s accomplishment is a fitting end to my ruminations on The Optimist Creed.

This article is the last in my series on The Optimist Creed. I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed writing them.

Optimism is the first step towards becoming a self confident person. Self confidences is the foundation for career and life success.

I am going to publish these articles on The Optimist Creed as an eBook. Please send me an e mail with the words "Optimist Creed eBook" in the subject line, and I'll send you one.