09 Nov Business Tip: Embrace Both Optimism and Realism
Admiral Jim Stockdale spent eight years in a prisoner-of-war camp during the Vietnam War undergoing both physical torture and psychological abuse.
When he returned home, he was asked how he was able to survive when so many of his fellow soldiers did not. He said it came down to two things:
#1. OPTIMISM – “I never lost faith in the end of the story,” he said. “I never doubted that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”
#2. REALISM – “There were some people who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ and Easter would come, and Easter would go. and then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end –- which you can never afford to lose–with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
Finding the middle path between optimism and realism is now known as, “The Stockdale Paradox,” and it is proven to be a key to leadership resilience.
As we edge up to the end of an extremely trying year, practicing the Stockdale Paradox may very well be the best medicine to help us press forward in this ever-changing slippery slope we’re collectively trekking.