Cursed with optimism

🎂 Today's a day to celebrate

It’s my natal day today.

I used to abide birthdays, but then life taught me lessons.

Now I see this holiday as the impetus to generate a heaping pile of appreciation, as a worthy excuse to push the limits of joyful enthusiasm. I will loudly inform strangers it’s my birthday today. My teenagers will wince and I will love it. My six year old has helped bake a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. I will not be working out. There’s a good chance my wife might tell someone her husband’s “gratitude game is good.” But I like to think of it as a practice.

This transition—from “it’s another day” to “it’s the day I arrived”—came about, in part, as I re-negotiated my relationship with creativity over a decade ago. I had stumbled upon the label, “I’m cursed with optimism” really early in my career. I relished its snark. I still find it amusing. But cynicism hasn’t proved particularly useful fuel for a career, much less a creative one. A suspicious and jealous approach to idea-making gets tiresome, and yields less worthy output over time.

The foggy place where ideas come from tends to be more rewarding, I’ve experienced, if you approach with a generous, thankful spirit. An old fart I know puts it this way: “Gratitude is my attitude.” Let’s be clear—I despised that sentiment the first time I heard it. Then I discovered it works.

We get to have ideas.

That’s worth celebrating loudly every day.