Here we were in Chicago, surrounded by young African-American men.The young men were tall, very tall, and garbed in the typical hip-hop wardrobe of wildly long shirts and extra-baggy pants.
And they were everywhere in this high-class hotel in Chicago. Strolling the lobby. Riding the elevator. Going to a nearby deli to fetch a take-out lunch.
The young men, surely dreaming of a career in the big leagues, were participating in pre-draft camp for prospective National Basketball Association players recently. In the same city where "Hoop Dreams" was filmed in 1994, the athletes had just finished three days of drills at a nearby college. Now they were receiving thorough physical examinations from a group of physicians specializing in sports medicine.
On the first evening, we shared an elevator with three of the athletes. It was easy to imagine the pressure that each of the young men was feeling. Hardly boisterous, their faces showed serious expressions. And this was serious business. Only a very few would take their place among the chosen ones. And being one of the "chosen" could ultimately mean a multi-million-dollar contract, worldwide fame and a life of travel and excitement, playing with NBA legends.
"I just want to go home," blurted one of the athletes to his new friends.
The next day, I saw another athlete in the lobby, carefully holding his lunch, a turkey and tomato sandwich fresh from the deli.
"How's it going?" I asked, wondering if his answer would echo yesterday's comment.
"It's good," he said, with a genuine smile on his face. "Real good. I think it's going to work out."
Now, all of this got me thinking about the attitude of optimism, the ability to stand tall in the uncertainties of life.
Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have been studying optimism for nearly 30 years. They actually teach the skills of optimism to help people look at the world with sunlight rather than gloom. The idea is that this attitude not only makes a difference in our emotional outlook, it also contributes to improved health. Optimistic people are generally more able to resist illness, including the common cold. When they are sick, they recover more quickly.
Optimism doesn't mean a denial of our distress, pretending everything is all right when it isn't. It means that we are able to find the spark of goodness in a situation and make healthy and useful choices. Optimists look at the glass as half full, trusting that new opportunities will appear in their world. Pessimists look at the glass as half-empty, anticipating doom and helplessness.
Seligman, the author of "Authentic Happiness," identifies three thinking styles separate these outlooks.
Pessimists blame themselves excessively when things go wrong. Optimists take responsibility for their mistakes and are able to assess situation the situation realistically, finding their strengths in the midst of challenges.
Pessimists believe the problem is permanent, not temporary. Optimists know the problem won't last forever and trust they'll find good times ahead.
Pessimists are sure that the problem will contaminate every area of their lives. Optimists, although able to recognize that things need improvement, are readily able to recognize parts of their lives are going well.
The good news is that we can shift our outlook from gloomy to sunny. Motivated people can notice patterns of thinking that are shaded with pessimism. With awareness and effort -- and maybe some note taking and the help of a friend or two-- we can reorganize thought patterns that show hope, strength and choices. This takes practice because our habitual thoughts seem to have a life or their own. In reality, we are the source of our thoughts.
Christine Shields Kann is one such optimistic thinker. A Racine businesswoman, wife, mother, volunteer and sports fan, she is known by her friends and colleagues for her relentless refusal to go negative.
"Of course, everyone has moments of frustration," she says. "But who can afford to be negative all the time? You have to keep moving forward."
As a teen, she developed a severe back problem that demanded the wearing of a brace. Doctors predicted she would have a myriad of related health problems that would limit her physical abilities. She proved the prognosis wrong, becoming a state-ranked competitive swimmer.
Now a competitive amateur golfer, she loves the sport's maxim to "play it where it lies."
You don't always get the ideal shot," she says. "You have to think about what club you're going to use, what risk you're going to take, and forge ahead," she says. "You can't sit and whine about it. You have to take that shot and do the best you can. It's the same in life."
Back in Chicago, we saw two men sitting at the curb of the hotel, with a box of deflated basketballs nearby. As the young players walked by, the men called out to the would-be NBA stars, asking them to sign the basketballs.
The two men were a pair of entrepreneurs. And I'd say they were also optimists, trusting that the names on the balls would be worth something some day.
