Adult Idealism

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can’t afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your reality, whatever they might be.

- Stockdale

When I was younger, I held an idealized view of the world.

I figured the many adults who seemed jaded by reality throwing around statements like “that’s just how life is” and “you’ll understand when you’re my age” had just given up, and I vowed never to be like them.

Then I got older, and reality set in. After 3 hours on the phone with insurance, a defeated perspective takes over the rest of my day. I saw high-school kids view of the world as youthfully naive.

My vow to never give up on my ideals prompted me to look for another option.

I noticed that if you interact with the world as you think it “should be” instead of understanding how it actually is, then your idealism degrades into naivety, and your realism degrades into gloom.

Instead, you can leverage idealism and realism for their strengths.

Idealism is the driving force behind positive change in our world and has the benefit of giving our life meaning. Realism allows you to understand how the world is today and what needs to change for your ideal society to exist.

The truly great people I know set a clear and precise vision for the world they want to see, understood the limits of reality, and then armed with realism started to drive, every day, towards their ideal version of the world.