Immature Optimism.

An oft-repeated metaphor as a test of attitude is ‘Is the glass half empty or is it half full?’.

A tenth standard student in one of my classes answered, ‘It is completely full. Half with water and half with air!’ Wow! It made me smile at the kid and wonder why I had never thought like that before. Now, this kid truly had the right perspective of the situation. This was right knowledge + right attitude. This was ‘mature positivity’.

‘Home-work never goes waste’ I read in an exceptional book ‘Double Life’ by the great advertising guru Alyque Padamsee also called as ‘god’ in advertising circles. With the right knowledge of ‘which home-work has to be done’ + the attitude of doing the homework, greatly enhances the chances of my success. This too is ‘mature positivity’.

Well begun is half done, goes the popular saying. Knowing what to begin (right knowledge) + preparing for it (right attitude) will ensure my passage to ‘well begun’. This is living with ‘mature positivity’.

Some people practice this as a routine. They search for the right knowledge and then give their hundred percent towards preparations. Beginning any task therefore, is easy.

When Neil Armstrong, the first ever man to step on the moon was asked, “How was your experience?”; coolly he answered, “It was just like another practice session”.

These people taste success frequently. These people ironically are in a minority. They display ‘mature positivity’. We must belong to this category.

The other category has the lazy, low self-belief and the egoistic ones. The lazy ones want to postpone their work as much as possible. They cover up their laziness in the garb of confidence. Students who study in the last few days, people who leave for a destination in the last moment (and then drive like men possessed), businessmen who do their accounts in the last few days, salesmen who meet their targets in the last few hours, and of course cricketers who take their country to win in the last few deliveries, they all belong to this category.

The egoistic ones see it below their dignity to prepare. They think they have no need to prepare. They look down on people who prepare. They make fun of people who prepare more than they are doing. Their words are laced with sarcasm for people who prepare. This attitude eventually causes them huge losses. Unfortunately, so often it is too late for them to rectify their mistakes. They pay for their overconfidence for the rest of their lives. On the face of it all, they look super-confident. But, their confidence is ‘immature positivity’.

Many people will concur this is what happened to the Indian cricket team in their immediate last series in England where they failed to win a single match. This was their worst defeat in decades.

Another one extra-ordinary example of this is the destruction of the mythological Lord of Lanka, Ravana.

He indeed was powerful. He indeed had valor. He indeed had very able lieutenants. However, his arrogance did him in. “What will two young forest dwelling sanyasis do to me?” he thought with arrogance. He did not collect the right knowledge. He did not display the right attitude. He had to pay with his life.

The positivity that you have must be like Neil Armstrong. That is ‘mature positivity’. It is based on right knowledge + right attitude.

When you are positive but casual in preparations, you are inviting failures. That is why, I believe ‘Immature Positivity leads to calamity’.

Lets drop all our ‘immature positivity’ and develop ‘mature positivity’ based on right knowledge + right preparations (right attitude). May you be the 21st century Neil Armstrong.

These people need pressure to start proper work only when they are threatened do they wake up. They can hardly perform coz they are never ever properly ready. Their focus is survival and not prosperity. They may have the right knowledge but not the right attitude. On the face of it they appear positive but suffer with immature positivity.

With loads of love, prayers and best wishes,
Asif
 – As I Learn…I remain Ignorant….