ROL: Positive Reality.

ROL is an abbreviation for Return on Life. Return on Life is all about making small incremental changes that yield large returns on life enjoyment. This week's ROL is about keeping a positive attitude grounded in reality.

This Season.

source: Wikipedia

It's been a tough season to be a Chicago Bears fan. The Bears started off the season losing 3 of their first 5 games. All three loses were dreadful. After that, the Bears reeled off 5 wins in a row and appeared to be an actual professional football team. The Bears star quarterback broke his thumb in the last victory of the 5. After losing their star quarterback the Bears lost five in row. With those five consecutive losses the Bears had no chance of qualifying for the playoffs. The coup de grace was a Bears win in the last game of the season, guaranteeing a worse draft position for the Bears. At least I'm used to it.

The Last Half-Decade.

The Chicago Bears had a great season in 2006, winning 13 of 16 games. The Bears advanced through the playoffs until losing the Super Bowl to the Indianapolis Colts. The next three years the Bears had a composite record one game below break even with no postseason appearances. Last year everything went right for the Bears until they lost the conference championship and found themselves 1 win short of a Super Bowl appearance.

It's All In How You Look At It.

At the post-mortem press conference the day after the Bears season ended, a reporter asked Bears coach Lovie Smith how he planned to turn around a franchise that has made the playoffs only once in five seasons. Smith replied, "We've made the playoffs once in the last two years". True. And Bill Clinton didn't have sex with that woman. The stain on her dress proves it.

Measure Accurately.

I'm a big fan of staying positive. A strong will to stay positive has gotten through some pretty rough times (How was 2011 for you?) Staying positive does not mean ignoring the truth. Staying positive means identifying and acknowledging and developing an action plan to correct any deficiencies.  Ignoring the obvious only makes it harder to improve and has a negative impact on a positive outlook.

Do you have any examples of someone (you, a family member, a colleague or employer)obscuring the truth in order to portray an overly rosy outlook? How do you feel when someone inaccurately portrays a situation in an overly optimistic manner?