It’s seductive to be a pessimist. It’s safer to criticise than to create. But really living means taking chances, being optimistic that you can make whatever it is you want to do happen. — Studiogstock/Freepix
I promise you this column isn’t about baseball.
The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team is heading to the World Series! Ironically the “World” Series only involves teams from the United States and my Canadian Toronto Blue Jays, but let’s move past that.
(Why is this one Canadian team taking part in a totally American league? It’s complicated, and I said this column isn’t about baseball, so I’ll explain another time, OK?)
My friend and I – I’ll call him Jerry B – have been watching, through much stress, as the Blue Jays managed to eke out wins and get to the final showdown, and I’ve realised that Jerry B seems to have a much better time doing so even though we both got the result we wanted.
Baseball, if you’ve ever watched it, is admittedly a slower sport. The pitcher takes his time to throw the ball, and it takes time for the batter to finally hit a ball in play, and while that is happening there is a lot of waiting, or in my case, stressing.
I stress over all the worst case scenarios. I stress about if the other team hits a home run. I stress over if our pitcher will start walking batters, I stress that it will all go wrong. And baseball is a game of statistics, so I’ll say to my friend, this isn’t looking good here, our pitcher doesn’t pitch well against left-handed batters, and I’ll back it up with statistics, and he’ll nod and say, “They’ll be all right”.
That’s his response to everything. Sort of a shrug that indicates everything will work out. Even if it doesn’t. But he isn’t pacing back and forth stressing about the game like I am – I behave like I’m actually playing in it, I stress over it so much.
There’s something to be learned there.
The great sci-fi writer Robert A. Heinlein said, “A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun”.
In the baseball-watching context, I can’t even say the pessimist is correct more often, because usually I was pessimistic and just flat out wrong. So what is going on there?
In the context of sports, the pessimism is guarding you from disappointment. If you can see what could go wrong, you can’t have your hope robbed from you. Which, to be fair in a sport situation, is pretty fair. Only one team can win it all, that means there are going to be a lot of losers. The danger is when pessimism infects all aspects of life.
It’s easy to walk around shooting holes in everything. Being a pessimist and seeing the downfall of your friend’s business plans, or your own career hopes is easy enough, but then you have to start asking yourself if the pessimism is because you’re being realistic, or is it a shield. Because if you believe everything is hopeless, there’s not much point in trying to do anything.
There is a quote known in the business world, “Pessimists sound smart, optimists make money”. The crux of it is, it’s easy to be negative but the real talent comes from seeing a path forward and believing it can be done.
Humans are geared to listen to pessimism. We’ve evolved to pay more attention to negative things than to positive things. It’s a survival thing. If we were super attuned when someone told us where a tiger was, or where the berries were poisonous, we lived longer than those that didn’t remember. But knowing we’re attuned to letting negative stuff live rent free in our heads, we need to choose to be optimists.
Or at least cautious optimists.
Pessimism sounds smart because it induces caution. If we’re blind optimists ready to take on the world because we’re overwhelmingly positive things can work out even though we might not be prepared, that’s just sort of silly. But an optimist armed with the knowledge and ability to execute something is the most powerful combination.
It’s seductive to be a pessimist. It’s safer to criticise than to create. And people will listen to you because you sound cautious and intelligent. But really living means taking those chances, believing you have what it takes, and being optimistic that you can make whatever it is you want to do happen.
Sitting next to Jerry B as we watched the Blue Jays in their playoff run, it became obviously clear: Maybe I knew more about the game, maybe I was right to be playing mental 4D chess and focusing on what could go wrong, maybe that’s the right thing to do – if I were managing the team.
But for pure enjoyment of the sport, sitting back, hoping for the best, and not being upset if it doesn’t happen is definitely a more fun way to watch sports. Hopefully, I’ll learn to do that.
