On This Thanksgiving - Thank You!

As Thanksgiving approaches, I wanted to send a warm thank you to you and all of the members of Operation: Optimism! No matter where in the world we come from, any day is a great excuse to think about things we are thankful for.

And on this day, I am thankful for all of you.

Perhaps this might be a good time for all of us to think about things we are thankful and grateful for. But I'm so thankful we have been able to grow our ranks and I hope that in the next year, we will double, triple, maybe even quadruple our number.

Let's join together, think about the good things in life, and the things we might be thankful for.

To all of you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

A Little More About Operation: Optimism! and Informed Optimism

What Does Informed Optimism Mean To You?

A warm thank you to everyone in this group for all of your kind words regarding my previous postings.

Lately I've been compiling information for a book I wanted to write about informed optimism. You see, there have been a host of books (for example, click here) that have been written in the recent months about the "self-help" culture and how some scholars believe that it actually led to the current recession we are experiencing.

Although I don't agree with many of the points from this school of thought, I do think that there have been serious issues raised about our tendency to be overly optimistic and non-realistic. It's not as pervasive in our culture as these authors might suggest, but there is a point here and I think we can all learn from it.

Which leads me to my request. If you have a moment, could you tell me a little about what informed optimism means to you? What does it mean to be optimistic in this day and age, especially when we are confronted with so many things that might bring us down.

To me, informed optimism is about our focusing on solutions, about what's right in this world. The more we focus on the good things, the more good things there will be to focus on. And so informed optimism is our tool to get ourselves on the right path.

But that's just me. What does "informed optimism" mean to you?

I'm opening this up to the group, I hope this will spark a great discussion and great material to spread with the world.

Please comment here, or send me an email at alec@operationoptimism.org. Thanks!

The World Is Not Ending in 2012!!!!

Guess what? The world is not ending in 2012 even according to the Mayans. Phew! Check out the great article here.

What We Resist, Persists & The Solution

I've uncovered and learned about an interesting paradox this week, and I feel compelled to write a little about it.

For some reason, when we have emotions, especially emotions that we do not want to have, we think that if we fight those emotions, that they will just melt away. For example, let's say that you feel depressed about something you feel is going wrong in your life. And let us say that this feeling has made you upset, and it hurts, it hurts real bad. At some point we have all been there.

Usually, at some point we start to think, "Hey, I don't want to be feeling this crappy anymore." And so we try to fight it off, fight off the negativity, fight off the depression, fight off the upset. We fight as hard as possible to make this pain go away.

However, the war we are waging cannot be won. "What we resist, persists."

Thus, we try to ward off the upset, the hurt, the pain, and in the end we fare no better then before.

But this is where the new teaching comes in. I know this might seem like a paradox, and it is, but if we could just allow ourselves to welcome the feeling, the emotion, then it's much easier to let go. If we just allow the feeling, give ourselves permission to feel what we are feeling, then we can better let go of the feeling.

Because at the end of the day, you are not your feelings. When you say "I am sad," that's not really true. You aren't sad, but you FEEL sad. You are not your emotions. And if you are not your emotions then you can let them go and feel better. But we can't let go of our emotions until we welcome them, until we accept them.

And so, when you are feeling something, no matter what it is, grief, anger, resistance, or just plain numbness, and you think you want to move on, then before you do anything - accept it. Accept the feeling. Accept the grief, the pain, the resistance. Welcome it. And once you welcome it, then you can finally start the process of letting it go.

I learned these ideas from a great book - The Sedona Method. I highly encourage you to read it. But even if you never read a word of it, just know that you are not your emotions. And if you accept them, embrace them, welcome them, then you can fully let them go. For good.

Bad Weather? Great Memory! (From Optimistworld.com)

There is evidence to suggest that bad weather makes for great memory. Read it here!

Eyes on the Prize

Tonight I'd like to talk about keeping our eyes on the prize. Often when things get hectic in our lives, we forget our goals and our dreams. We forget the things that used to drive us. We get caught up in the nitty gritty of every day life that we don't allow ourselves to dream, and dream big.

Tonight I'd like to ask you to take a moment, it can be even 5 minutes, but take a moment to remember what your dreams were. Remember what it was you really wanted to do with your life. Or perhaps remember what it was you wanted to create, teach, learn, anything. Is there a place you really wanted to go? Remember what you felt like when you've been to new places that exhilarate you, that get you really excited? Just remember, go back to that place where you allow yourself to dream. Really get specific and remember that dream. The contours of that wonderful reverie.

Look around. Who is there? What are you doing? What have you accomplished (or perhaps not accomplished if you're at the beach)? How do you feel?

Are you feeling it now? Are you in that place, in that dream that you've always wanted but just have not had the time to think about or dream about? Really feel it. Be there.

When you look around and dream a little bit more, then there is a much better chance of actually experiencing the dream. I'm not talking about today, or tomorrow, or maybe not this month or this year. But the more you dream and really fill in the details of that dream the more likely it will come about.

And let's be honest, in the worst-case, and I mean absolute worst-case scenario (and I know a lot of us think this way), you "wasted" a little time feeling good about something, and that is something nice, a little emotional candy in the middle of your day. That's not so bad, is it?

So keep your eyes on the Prize. Allow yourself to dream like you used to, just for a little bit. Try it every day. I promise you will not regret doing so, and there's even a great chance something magical will happen.

If you want to talk with me personally about this or anything else, please feel free to contact me or email me at alec@operationoptimism.org.

Be sure to check back here for updates, as Operation: Optimism! will be unveiling a new coaching program soon that should be a great jolt of positivity to our world!