The "Bacon Boys," a group of intentionally optimistic men in our industry routinely serve breakfast at The Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a battered women’s shelter in Pasadena, Texas. From left are Chad Burke, Jim Griffin, Thomas Brinsko, John Collins, James Rhame and Daniel Swafford.
It’s easy to look at the news and energy headlines and feel dour. Inflation continues. Our current administration has pledged to end O&G. Chemical manufacturing has had a difficult year.
Earnings for almost every energy major are down significantly. Some of my social media feeds are downright depressing.
I was pondering this, and like a lightning bolt, a new thought struck me. I needed to consider the positive a bit more — maybe a lot more. It didn’t take me long to brainstorm a list of positive thoughts.
Global oil demand is at a record high and only projected to grow. U.S. shale is still here. U.S. oil production is at a record high. The energy transition won’t really chip away at oil demand. If you look at previous energy transitions, what you see is they don’t eliminate existing forms of energy. What happens is the transition adds additional sources of energy, and these transitions take place over long periods of time. O&G aren’t going anywhere.
Energy fundamentals continue to favor U.S. chemical production over European and Middle East production. While profitability is down for every major, this is coming off a record year, and the majors are all still very healthy and priced low on the market. Inflation is still high, but many are predicting a "soft landing" for the economy.
Then I look at BIC: record levels of web traffic and all sorts of new digital products; we are blessed with a robust, healthy print publication. BIC Recruiting is blowing out a record year and IVS Investment Banking closed a transaction representing a blue-chip construction company last month. I continued with positive thoughts about my family, friends and neighbors. Wow, talk about "physician, heal thyself." My mindset transformed immediately, assuaging anxiety that only moments earlier was building. Choose to be optimistic. It just feels better.
Optimism is an attitude characterized by hope, according to the American Psychological Association. When you’re optimistic, you feel like positive things will happen and that things can change for the better. An optimist understands that life can be a bumpy road, but at least it is leading somewhere.
I’d encourage you to consider your mindset and reset it as necessary. It will make you feel better. Several studies even show that optimistic people enjoy better mental health. In tough circumstances, optimism seems to support emotional wellness. Physically, optimistic people tend to have better respiratory health. It also appears to be particularly good for your heart, plus stats show optimistic people may live longer. One huge study — nearly 160,000 racially diverse people participated — found that optimism is linked to a longer lifespan than pessimism. It’s worth it to check your attitude.
Some use the term "pronoia" in lieu of optimism. It is the opposite of paranoia. It’s a mindset where, instead of persons or entities conspiring against you, a person experiencing pronoia believes the world around them conspires to do good.
How does one develop an optimistic outlook? Here are seven suggestions:
Embrace your challenges: Every challenge is a potential lesson. Look for the wisdom you can find in any given situation. Opportunity arises from almost every challenge.
We should cultivate gratitude: Be grateful for what you have. It’s more than most people have.
Celebrate others: Jealousy absorbs energy that keeps you away from your goals. Don’t compare yourself to others.
Serve others: It’s a mysterious truth that it’s better to give than receive. When we switch from our natural bent toward self-centeredness to other centeredness, we almost supernaturally become more optimistic about our own circumstances.
Offer yourself positive affirmations: Life is hard enough without being unnecessarily hard on yourself.
Work on resilience: Adapt a mindset that "no matter what happens to me, I’m gonna make something awesome out of it." It’s important to view life’s obstacles as an opportunity for growth.
Invest time and energy in developing your religious faith: Studies show that those who regularly attend religious services are more likely to have an optimistic outlook. I’ll concede that correlation doesn’t equal causation, but I firmly believe that my active Christian faith provides me and other Christians I know with a positive worldview.
It has been opined by many scholars that without challenges, suffering or trials — whatever you wish to call it — growth and maturation aren’t possible. Optimists learn from mistakes and failures and are not afraid to fail again. Yes, we face many challenges and obstacles in life — that’s guaranteed. You and I have already faced many difficult situations, but others have faced, and are facing, worse. I wouldn’t want to relive certain things in my life, but I wouldn’t want to give up all the lessons I’ve learned either. Through the ups and downs, I’ve grown from all my experiences.
One man who faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles was Vaclav Havel. After the fall of communism in his country, he was the first democratically elected president of the Czech Republic. He said optimism "is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
The obstacles I laid out at the opening of this missive are real. At the same time, we are blessed to live in a resilient nation with the world’s most resilient economy. We should embrace these challenges as an opportunity to grow and do better. Unless you believe the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take part in the responsibility for making it so.
Thank you for reading BIC. Please share this issue with a friend. Reach out to me personally with any comments or suggestions. -Thomas
