What is this blog? Who am I? Why am I doing this?

 For most of my life, I have been a realist. Some would probably call me a pessimist. I generally expect the worst from people, organizations and events. It's not that I think everything is terrible or that the world is in chaos, it's just that I find that expecting the worst means no bad surprises, and if something good happens, well great! I'm sure there is some deep psychological explanation, like the fact that I work in risk management and am trained to look for risks and issues, or that something happened when I grew up that made me think this way. Who cares? The point is, that is how I think and view the world. 

Or it was.

I recently turned 34. Amid COVID, an unstable and bifurcated political system and society and a world facing serious ecological and environmental issues. I recently even started a program in Artificial Intelligence  because I am honestly worried about the state of the world and think it's one of few things that can get us out of the mess we have made. But when I turned 34, I made a decision. I would try to spend one year as an optimist, looking for the best in things, assuming situations will turn out well and that "everything will be all right." 

There is no specific reason I am doing this. No earth-shattering life event happened, nor did I have an enlightening conversation with someone, or a religious moment of awakening. Nope. I just decided that I wanted to try it, that there are enough bad things happening that I don't need to assume they will happen.

But it's hard! Living most of your life thinking a certain way makes it very difficult to change how I think or see things. So I am starting this blog. I think if I write it down, maybe it will help me think like this or condition my brain to always hope for the best. I don't know, maybe not. Maybe it will suck. BUT NO! We are being optimistic, so this will help and make my outlook on the world better. 

If you are like me, hopefully you can go on this journey with me and maybe what I write can help you have a better outlook on the world.

**DISCLAIMER: I want this blog to be as objective as possible. I want anyone to be able to read it and feel like they can identify with what I am  saying and not feel attacked. I want a lot of things. But I know that I have inherent biases that will bleed through in my writing. So, I am going to put a disclaimer at the top of all my posts to state my view on the issue, and try to get that out of the way to focus on the underlying issues. Not sure how well it will work, but let's find out. I mean, it will work out great! 

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 14, 2020 at 6:10 PM

    Daniel, tu padre me forward tus blogs. Me gusto leerlos, muy buenos! Keep them up! Good job! Te mando un abrazo.
    Ruben

    ReplyDelete

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