For everything that happens and gets to where it happened, it is essential that human beings have an excess of optimism, but not everyone has the same burden of courage and audacity, writer-researcher Mark Stevenson suggested the idea of identifying common traits. of the ultimate optimists, and established the 8 principles of pragmatic optimism.
Scientific and technological changes are transforming the society in which we live, which is why Stevenson believes that we should educate ourselves and live a little differently than we do today, and says that an effort must be made to maintain a reflection based on pragmatic optimism.
- To do this.
- He wonders how some people do good things in a changing world and wants to find out what everyone has in common that makes them more likely to fight for the future and transform the world.
Optimism is the tendency to expect the future to bring positive results, so it is necessary to seek solutions, benefits and opportunities, always focusing on the positive.
Stevenson censors the conformism that prevails in today’s society and encourages us to imagine, dream and elucide the future as we wish, guiding ourselves for what we aspire to is the only way to implement pragmatic optimism.
In establishing these principles, Stevenson realized that people who make significant progress or are doing so globally are committed and linked to projects that go beyond themselves.
Selfishness has no place in this current of thought, for its motivation is an end far from individualism and narcissism: to create for the good of all, not for some or for oneself.
Beliefs are subjective. Scientific facts are objective. Stevenson believes that pragmatic optimism should focus on the latter to ensure a more scientific and evidence-based way of thinking, i. e. he recommends focusing on what has been demonstrated.
To do this, he gives the example of the profession of engineer versus that of politician: while the former builds structures based on objective reality, politics is guided by its ideology, often refusing to see things as they are. thinks like an engineer.
Sharing ideas amplifies them, makes them grow. If on the contrary we protect these ideas, what we do is deprive the world and the power they have, a great idea, if not shared, is isolated, suspended, parked and stopped. And finally he dies.
Now we are all connected and the changes become faster, this writer ensures that the more connected we are, the faster ideas flow, but he also believes that if power is spread on the Internet, so must responsibility, we should not systematically delegate to others.
“When ideas are shared, we empower people rather than exercise them. – Mark Stevenson-
If we’re wrong, that’s fine. We’re going to get up, but something happens if we don’t dare try: we are victims of fear of failure.
Thus, Mark Stevenson encourages us to make mistakes because he believes that mistakes are a way to progress towards success, in fact, he believes that making mistakes is the best strategy to move forward, nobody has discovered anything without making mistakes before.
People who believe that mistake is the biggest disaster that can happen to them are stagnant and stagnant, as a result, they commit serious irresponsibility and inadvertently go the wrong way.
The intention motivates action, but we cannot be content with intentions, but with actions, so the best way to be faithful to who we are is to act, putting into practice what we believe and think, we are what we do and feel, not what we intend to do or just imagine.
Stevenson believes cynicism rules the world culturally. Right now, there’s a lack of ambition and hope that things can get better. Pragmatic optimism demands an end to laziness, apologies and personal stagnation. Only by overcoming this mental barrier can we live our dreams.
“Innovation is the place where ideas have sex. -Mark Stevenson-
Each project is a long-term plan. A kind of background race in which small steps are taken to achieve the proposed goals, a few days we will go further, others less, but the reward will come sooner or later. Waiting, effort, patience and perseverance make the social good provided useful.
These 8 principles are a perfect guide to the formation of pragmatic optimism, allowing us to achieve a more productive and positive personal state, in addition, if we start introducing it into everyday life, it will give us more confidence to transform everything we do. it’s always possible.