{"id":1963,"date":"2009-06-19T09:40:25","date_gmt":"2009-06-19T13:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/?p=1963"},"modified":"2025-03-28T10:52:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T14:52:46","slug":"practical-pessimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/2009\/06\/19\/practical-pessimism\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Pessimism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/h3>\n

Sometimes a lack of confidence can help.<\/h3>\n

Hope is a great quality and it is no doubt that your optimism towards what is possible has led you to where you are today. But pessimism about the future has a necessary place in your life and business too.<\/p>\n

Optimism rules when anticipating (predicting) and enjoying outcomes — but there’s also great value in being pessimistic when preparing (considering) outcomes. After all, things don’t always go ‘our way’.<\/p>\n

Call it ‘worst-case scenario’ planning.<\/h3>\n

Take time to identify your greatest fears about an undertaking. Develop a scenario for how you would deal with the fear if it became reality.<\/p>\n

For example, when starting Elastic Mind I was afraid that I wouldn’t make a sustainable living as a writer and web consultant. So, I developed a ‘worst-case scenario’ plan that allowed me to keep doing what I love and make more money, if needed. I determined I would go back to school for counseling and I would have two part-time careers. I would still be following my passions but I wanted to ensure I have a practical plan should my business not garner me enough income.<\/p>\n

It’ll boost your confidence overall.<\/h3>\n

You’ll have shown your inner critic that no matter what happens, you’ll be okay. These fears lie within you anyway, and that’s okay. Why not show them how wrong they are?<\/p>\n

There’s nothing wrong with preparing for the worst – it’s anticipating it that’s a detriment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Ferriss, Author of the 4 Hour Work Week<\/em> on ‘Pessimism as a Productivity Booster’.<\/h3>\n

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photo credit: Joel Zimmer<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"pessimism\"<\/h3>\n

Sometimes a lack of confidence can help.<\/h3>\n

Hope is a great quality and it is no doubt that your optimism towards what is possible has led you to where you are today. But pessimism about the future has a necessary place in your life and business too.<\/p>\n

Optimism rules when anticipating (predicting) and enjoying outcomes — but there’s also great value in being pessimistic when preparing (considering) outcomes. After all, things don’t always go ‘our way’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-creativity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11141,"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963\/revisions\/11141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elasticmind.ca\/innerpreneur\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}