I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m grateful to each of you for joining me in learning and building ties of Shalom with each other.
Optimism works. Every survey says those with a positive view of the future live longer, have more meaningful relationships and feel greater life satisfaction.
But so much seems wrong in the world today. And a recent survey says optimism has declined in our country by over 30% over the last 10 years!
How can we change that? How can we feel more hopeful?
Well, some of it is genetics. We are all hardwired to different spots on the optimism-pessimism line.
But there's an easy way you can quickly become more optimistic: Be more curious. Ask more questions. The more curious we are, the less despair we feel.
This may not feel intuitively true. But think about a time when you were curious. How did you look at the world?
You probably looked forward to learning something new. You couldn't wait.
Some of the brightest people I know did not get the best grades in high school. But they did excel in a few subjects.
Those were the ones that sparked their curiosity. Those were the subjects where they wanted to read more and listen to the teacher. They would read ahead, ask questions, watch YouTube videos.
Curiosity gives us a direction, a purpose, a reason to keep going. Curiosity reminds we are on a journey, and that journey is not yet complete because we have more to learn.
More broadly, curiosity impels us to imagine what is possible. When we are curious, we ask ourselves: If this is true, then what else might be true? If we learn this, then what happens? Where will this discovery lead us?
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard captured the energy in the feeling of possibility in one of his seminal articles. “If I were to wish for anything,” he wrote, “I should not wish for wealth or power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never."
Asking more questions keeps us open and fresh. It gives us energy and a vision of possibility.
God gave us brains for a reason. God gave us a lifetime to learn for a reason. Optimism helps us sustain our faith over the long road to a meaningful life.
This is a great message. I’m always open to new experiences.
Great article. Thank you.