We’re always told to be positive and all those corporate catchphrases that hang on boardrooms around being optimistic. I was a staunch believer in this as well and I always hated myself for being such a dark pessimist. I recently got a chance to read Originals by Adam Grant and it has a whole chapter dedicated to understanding how you function and “trying” to be positive is a load of crap. You should be you (once you know who you are), even if you are an eternal pessimist who believes all that can go wrong will go wrong with whatever you do. I am going to try and summarise my learnings but I highly recommend you read that book. It is a mine full of golden nuggets (maybe I could have just said a gold mine).
Lewis Pugh, often called the human polar bear, is an incredible human being. He is an endurance swimmer and an advocate of oceans. Pugh is best known for undertaking the first swim across the North Pole in 2007 to highlight the melting of the Arctic sea ice. It is this last swim, that is discussed in the book. Before a swim, his body temperature rises from 98.6F to 101F. His trainer calls it “anticipatory thermogenesis”. When he is ready to plunge into icy water, his body automatically prepares for it. The water he was going to swim in was going to around 29F (people died when the Titanic sank in 41F water). Before the actual swim, he tried a 5-minute test swim and almost died. Paralyzed by fear, he began imagining the worst-case scenario and thinking how if things went awry, he could die. His pessimistic thinking helped him think more strategically and prepare himself for everything that could go wrong. He was able to do the swim successfully.
Psychologist Julie Norem talks about two approaches to dealing with stressful situations – strategic optimism (SO) and defensive pessimism (DP). SO is all about anticipating the best, staying calm, and setting high expectations. It is what you would associate with the alpha type A personalities that just ooze confidence. DP is expecting the worst, feeling anxious, and imagining all that can go wrong. You would think being a strategic optimist is always better but it turns out both these types can perform equally better in any given situation.
Norem talks about how she, a night before a public speaking engagement, finds herself thinking about all the things that could go wrong. How she could trip on the stage, forget her speech, etc. She then goes on to use that fear to prepare for every scenario that comes into her head. Like how she doesn’t wear the kind of shoes that would make it easier to trip. In effect, she transforms her anxiety to strategic planning. Before his freezing swims, Pugh, behaves like a defensive pessimist, analyses every possible risk and draws a plan to counter all the risks one by one. It is the negative thinking that powers him and aids in his impossible pursuits.
Norem performed an interesting darts experiment that drives home the point of how pessimists need to prepare differently to achieve great results. People were randomly assigned to think hard and envision what a great performance would seem like. Another group was asked to visualise a really bad performance and finally the last group was asked to simply relax. The DP’s in the group came out 30% more accurate when they imagined negative outcomes than when they just relaxed.
When anxiety strikes, DP’s enhance it by imagining the disaster scenario and then turn it into motivation. They build safeguards and ensure they are prepared. Considering all details gives them a sense of control and that is what powers their success. If you’re a defensive pessimist and successful, you should know that you are successful because of it and not despite it. The next time you are anxious and people are asking you to relax or chill, tell them your anxiety is just you hashing out the details.
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I run a startup called Harmonize. We are hiring and if you’re looking for an exciting startup journey, please write to jobs@harmonizehq.com. Apart from this blog, I tweet about startup life and practical wisdom in books.