Life Back West

[Difficult Times] Silver Linings Playbook

The opening line from Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities comes to mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” 

These are really, really tough times. My colleague Tina’s dad died from Covid 19. My friends Craig and Annie gave back the keys to the restaurant they owned, closed forever. A client, whose mom died, zoomed the memorial service from thousands of miles away since safely precautions precluded anyone attending. Walking the dog or going to the food market has become an adventure in caution. For those who are immunocompromised, like my colleague Frank, a trip outside means only going as far as the suburban block on which he lives.

Yet there are rays of hope, and research tells us two things; having faith in the future makes you more likely to succeed, and hope in part comes from finding the silver linings that exist. 

My big silver lining, for example, is high quality time with my remote schooling high school son Traylor, that apple of my eye who will most likely be heading off to college after next year. While it’s neither of our ideas of perfection, we’re getting the most time together we’ll likely get for the rest of our lives. It’s a rich treasure for both of us.

The requirement to work remote also means that my partner Michael, who works for a location-centric tech company in Silicon Valley, can work from his Michigan hometown for a month. Silver lining? A family member with a degenerative disease; a gift of time that the pandemic has provided when time is short.

For a client company who recently had a highly successful IPO, the silver lining was 60+ team meetings with bankers, lawyers and investors from the relative comfort of home and Zoom. Rather than spending weeks in planes and hotels on what feels like a death march, the public offering was less painful and more efficient. 

Research shows that having faith in a better future “creates” greater success. Those studies indicate that a strong sense that things will work out was better at predicting academic achievement than intelligence, personality or previous academic achievement. 

Optimists, research from Harvard Business Review notes, make more money, get promoted more often, are six times more likely to be engaged with work and five times less likely to suffer burnout than pessimists. And being optimistic also helps people cope better with disease and surgery, and an optimistic outlook in life predicts better health and longevity.health/optimism-and-your-health.

While some people temperamentally seem to be born hopeful and optimistic, for others it’s a matter of strengthening an underused muscle. Noticing your negative thoughts, reframing things in a positive manner, practicing positive comments on others and on yourself are all ways to move yourself forward to a more hopeful stance.

And most importantly? 

Look for and embrace the silver linings. They are everywhere.


Life Back West is an occasional set of writings focused on ways people, teams and organizations can be both more effective (doing the right thing) and more efficient (doing the right thing well). More about my 30+ years of work coaching execs, start up and leadership teams can be found at the “About J. Mike Smith and Back West, Inc.” sidebar at the Back West blog.  Now welcoming new and known clients.

 

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