Power of Optimism

While pursuing my Masters in Microsystems Engineering, I was living in furtwangen, Germany. Furtwangen is a small city in Baden-Württemberg. It is situated in the heart of the black forest and known for its Cuckoo musical clocks and the source of Danube river. The second largest river in Europe flowing through 10 countries.  

Every time I visited the Danube source, that small stream taught me many life lessons. One of the things I learnt is the power of optimism. When I first visited  the source, I was bewildered by thinking how such a small stream which is just a 50 cm by 50 cm small water outlet at the top of a mountain becomes such a huge river of 2850 km. 

During my stay in Furtwangen, I have spent many hours sitting there alone, watching the water coming out of the head of the mountain. The water coming out is absolutely tiny. But without focusing on the hurdles (in this case stony pathway) and without focusing its volume, it just starts following. Many times the stones in the path are so big that it has to pass under them, sometimes stones don't give it an easy pass way, so it has to change its reroute around the stone. But it never stopes flowing. It keeps flowing with great perseverance. A big stone, scorching sun, a chilly winter, deep valleys - nothing, absolutely nothing can stop it from flowing and achieving its goal. Every drop comes out of the earth travels mindboggling 2850 km to reach out to the Black sea. For me this is called optimism. The optimistic people always look for some out-of-box solutions. But they never give up. 

In our lives, at some point of time our situation is like that small stream. At the beginning we face many hurdles, challenges, resistance, unfavorable conditions. But if we keep our optimism in place, nothing can stop us from growing. Just imagine, instead of flowing all over if that water finds a big pothole and simply rests there, what will happen? Couple of hot sunny afternoons can easily evaporate it and devour its existence. But the stream knows very well that its existence rely in persistent flowing. As the stream always focuses on the Goal, nothing can discourage it. 

As it flows further, it also collaborates with other small streams. It accepts them wholeheartedly. After this merger, nobody can recognize which water come from which source. All the streams work together for a greater cause. This behavior taught me the nature of great people. They accept the people as they are and empower them in to achieve the higher goals. Optimists always see some positivity in everything happening in their lives. They are very accommodative. That is why they have better family as well as professional relationships. Optimists firmly believe that "in the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity". In short optimism help a person to be open minded, innovative, creative and focused.  

After following for hundreds of kilometers and by doing many collaborations with external partner, when a stream grows as a river, it's hurdles in the form of stone or big dam walls  cannot hold it back. It can accommodate thousands and millions of stones in its belly and stills flows very calm and quietly. Here the lesson is that the optimist believes in synergy. Instead of focusing on competition, he focuses on growth and goal.  Instead of reducing the line drawn by a competitor, he focuses on increasing the length of his own line. As optimist grow it becomes more and more thoughtful, silent, calm and charitable. 

When a rivers enters in a sea, it reaches its destination. Although it was great source of sweet water, it does not stop back from merging into a salty sea water. In the form of sea its existence is super big. A sea can accommodate hundreds of rivers but never crosses it's boundaries. It gives the shelter to billions of aquatics animals, plants, water transport ships, crude oil, mines, mountains and valleys. When it is in the form of sea, not even big volcanos do any harm to the waterbody. From this behavior of the sea, I learnt that great personalities never gets agitated easily. 

In summary : An optimist is

• Goal oriented
• Persistent in efforts
• Progressive in small steps
• Collaborative and accommodative (synergetic)
• Innovative and creative
• Enthusiast