Optimist vs Actionist

In the book, Do the KIND Thing, the founder of KIND, Daniel Lubetsky, talks about the the power of optimism for entrepreneurs. But he positions his form of optimism as something he calls, Actionism. I looked this term up and here’s what I found:

ACTIONIST: a person that does not accept things as they are and commits to change them 

Yes, yes, and more yes!

I’ve always thought that part of my success has come from being optimistic and positive. But…I always struggled with the word optimism because I don’t just simply believe that things are going to work out. I believe that I have a chance to MAKE them work out.

In fact, there’s a reason that one of Dragon Army’s core values is “Think Positively” and not “Be Optimistic.” It was important to me that we were more proactive with this value. That we believe we could (and should) affect change, not simply hope for it.

Lubetsky gives a great example in the book to emphasize this point. He says that if an entrepreneur sees a glass, she doesn’t think “is that glass half full or half empty,” she thinks, “its time to fill that glass up!” #nailedit

It turns out (though I had forgotten about it) that I’ve written about this concept previously, in a post called, The difference between a pessimist, an optimist and a leader.

In it, I shared this quote:

“The pessimist complains about the wind.  The optimist expects it to change.  The leader adjusts the sails.” John Maxwell

Being an optimist is great, but being an actionist is better :)