CHAPTER 16
Creating the Future You Want
Visioning What You Want
FIGURE 16.1 Reality and Commitment, the Fifth and Sixth of the Eight Behaviors
Optimistic, reality-grounded visions can create the impossible (
Figure 16.1). I believe you can easily name the source of these visions:
⢠Building a heavier-than-air flying machine from bicycle technology;
⢠âMake my little Newport store the best, most profitable variety store in Arkansas within five years;â
⢠âI have a dream that one day little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers;â
⢠âPut a man on the moon and return him to Earth within the decade;â
⢠âTo democratize the automobile;â and
⢠âA New Physics in Our Lifetime.â This is the vision I used to market the $8 billion Great Observatories program that I describe in detail later in this chapter. One of my colleagues recently said to me, âI donât see any new physics.â I said, âBe patient, I am still alive.â
Reality-Based Optimism (Hope)
The following is from Jerome Groopman, an oncologist (2003):
Hope, unlike optimism, is rooted in unalloyed reality. Hope is the elevating feeling that we experienceâwhen we see in the mindâs eyeâa path to a better future. Hope acknowledges the significant obstacles and deep pitfalls along the path. True hope has no room for ...