Whether we call the glass half-empty or half-full matters because it defines the direction we’re looking towards.
Calling it half-empty means that we are measuring what is there with what is still missing in it. And calling it half-full celebrates how much is already there.
These two different outlooks reflect in the passion and perseverance we bring into anything we do.
A few years ago I was running an online channel where we broadcast interviews and panel discussions around community issues. We didn’t have enough budget to get professional anchors, but I still managed to recruit a small bunch from my theatre circle who were willing to work for a minimal fee because they believed in our content. And in no time they were improving by leaps and bounds and discovering their own unique styles.
But one of my partners did not see it that way. Right from day one, he kept complaining they were not as good as ‘Oprah Winfrey’! That is, he could only see how short they were falling, the half-empty bit.
This thinking led to two outcomes:
Firstly, the feedback he gave them was almost entirely useless to them because it came from this imagined Oprah standard in his head, and not from where they were right now. (Imagine presenting for the first time before a really big audience, and the feedback you get is from how much better Steve Jobs was, rather than a more useful “Move across the stage a little more” or “Project your voice more”.)
Secondly, he was missing out on the journey the rest of us were having: of steadily improving with every show. He was missing out on the fun of learning.
Now extend this example to the obscene standards many of us demand of our own selves. The same two problems surface here.
First, we are setting ourselves goals that are all but impractical. Remember the many, many times we all have promised ourselves that starting tomorrow, we’re going to overhaul our whole lifestyle. Adopt the whole seven thundering habits of highly successful people. That motivation lasts out as long as any New Year resolution: a week at the max. Because when the goals are inorganic – that is not coming from where we are right now – we are setting ourselves for failure.
Second, it takes the fun out of learning. Instead of looking at our steady progress, we are measuring only our shortcomings. Instead of focusing on the 2-3 new things we are learning every day, we are kicking ourselves for all that we don’t know yet. We become our own hard and impatient taskmasters, and that leaves us feeling so demotivated that we ultimately drop out of the game altogether.
Improvements are always incremental before they suddenly explode into non-linear results; sometimes so tiny we might not see them emerge for a long time. It is the law of the learning curve – and this is where a half-full attitude can make such a difference. It can give us the inspiration to persevere just long enough to reach that tipping point when suddenly change happens.
Call it optimism. Believing that things are looking good regardless of how they really are, because this belief creates its own self-reinforcing loop.
And with this optimism, what seems like a shortfall to a half-empty mindset is celebrated as a minor but significant improvement by the half-full mindset. 1% more than yesterday’s half-full.
So wherever you are in your career, your career and personal projects, your life — stop looking forward for a while at where you want to go, and look back. See how far you have come.
You are already half-full.
And now look forward and go ahead with the belief that you are doing good and getting there wherever you want to go: one tiny step after another.
