Contentment: How to Practice Optimistic Discontent
Wrong-headed leaders fear happiness. For them discontentment is a virtue.
Dissatisfaction – by itself – creates misery.
“The World is Not Enough,” the James Bond spy thriller, expresses the sentiment of discontent leaders. It doesn’t matter what gets done – it’s never enough.
Don’t expect to enjoy tomorrow if a drop of discontent pollutes a cup of satisfaction.
Discontent:
Discontent is living in an imagined world that never comes into existence.
I ask leaders, “How are things going?” A typical response begins with joy and ends with poison. Things are good – BUT.
I don’t like…
The board expects…
We have this rotten team member…
The poison of better:
If you’re always discontent, you’re a complainer.
Make up your mind. Things are either good or they aren’t. Making things better tomorrow has nothing to do with it.
If ‘better’ poisons today’s achievement, achievement is like the James Bond movie, Never Enough.
How good do things have to be before you stop complaining about the 10%? We all know that If things were 10% better you’d find something else to complain about.
Optimistic discontent:
Only fools attain perfection.
Most people naturally complain about the good things in their lives.
Contentment is about you. Don’t blame discontent on environments, results, or people.
“Success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” John Wooden
If you did your best, walk out of work content. Make improvements tomorrow.
- Be content with your best effort and optimistic about your future.
- Gratitude requires contentment.
- Aspiration requires optimism.
- Never let minor shortfalls poison current achievements.
- Ignore “can’t do” people.
- Explore aspiration optimistically. Step up. Don’t give up.
- Know where you want to go and enjoy making progress.
Contentment isn’t complacency.
How might leaders practice optimistic discontent?
Good morning, Dan…. this post is very timely for me as the insanity at work is at an all time high! 🙂 I am sharing this with my team and the peers in my organization. I also love the orange kitties!
Thanks Lisa. Glad you love the kitties. 🙂 … I think learning to navigate craziness is a key leadership skill. I wish you well.
“How good do things have to be before you stop complaining about the 10%? We all know that If things were 10% better you’d find something else to complain about.” I talked about this in a leadership meeting yesterday. A student gets a 97% on a test and all we seem to talk about is the 3% he or she got wrong. It is time to accentuate the positive!
Thanks for holding up a mirror today so we can check ourselves and get back looking on the positive side.
Thanks Pat. We might find out that if we honor the right things performance will improve. Honor achievement AND the work it took to make the achievement. You get what you honor. If you want people to work hard, honor hard work.
By focusing on the 3%, we send the message that anything less than perfection is unacceptable. And since no one is perfect, we end up demoralizing rather than encouraging the other person.
Thanks for reminding me about the attributes for a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset.
Thanks Pat and bringing the growth mindset into this post is helpful.
Dan, keep doing all that you do! Reading your posts from time to time helps me be the best I can be. I appreciate you!
Thank you Michael. I wish you well as you move forward.
“Be content with your best effort and optimistic about your future.” So how come so few realize this and do not accept it or play it in their lives. I just see so much, “fear, doubt, & uncertainty” in this world. It is as if everyone is “victim” and the media and even the government play on that “fear, doubt, & uncertainty” to gain support or push an agenda. It is a very old saying but, “pull up your bootstraps and go out there and get to it” is so true. One drives one’s own journey so drive it. Some are given more to start some less, some face more obstacles, some less so what. When you were born there was no sign that said, “hey everything’s perfect you will have no challenges, no setbacks, no pain”. On the contrary the world and it’s people will throw everything at you good and bad, throw it back I say with a smile. Now go out there and make this day a positive one because there is at least one person that has it worse than you.
Thanks Roger… Love the ‘smile” in “throw it back with a smile.” Sadly, you are right. People use fear to create a following. The people who fear the same thing huddle together. The real issue is what are you going to do about it.
A little optimistic discontent would help many of us.
I read somewhere about the power of the word “yet” (and it may have been here!). When we’re dissatisfied about something that we don’t know, or don’t have, or didn’t accomplish, etc., if we tack on a “yet” to it, it reminds us that what we think we lack today can still be accomplished another day. I think that’s one way of turning discontent into optimism.
Thanks Dee. I love simple actionable ideas! Using “yet” makes sense.
Great post Dan, “yet we still complain”. It is so true we waste too much time on “the 3%” that Pat references. The art of perfection is often so construed nobody knows what’s right. Spend less time complaining and more time praising and performing. Soon no one will want to do anything out of fear of everything.
I need balance. Pat myself on the back for the 97. End of story.
But if this involves a high priority–very important skill/competency for me–I would think about what can I learn from the 3%. What small change would produce better results.
Complaining doesn’t produce improvement. Reflection, followed by a plan of action may get me a 98 or 99 on the next opportunity.
Here is a better way of saying it–related to going from 97 to 98 to 99.
“As you progress towards better and better performance, it requires identifying smaller and smaller adjustments to your approach and execution.”
I don’t know who made this statement-(I didn’t) but I really like it.
I love “Optimistic Discontent.” I’ll keep that next to “Humble Confidence.”
Thanks Wretch. Humble confidence helps me understand both humility and confidence.