8. Realistic Thinking Brings the Dream to Fruition
British
novelist John Galsworthy wrote, “Idealism increases in direct
proportion to one’s distance from the problem.” If you don’t get close enough to
a problem, you can’t tackle it. If you don’t take a realistic look at your dream—
and what it will take to accomplish it—you will never achieve it.
Realistic
thinking helps to pave the way for bringing any dream to fruition.
1. Develop an Appreciation for Truth
I could not develop as a realistic thinker until I gained an appreciation for
realistic thinking. And that means learning to look at and enjoy truth. President
Harry S. Truman said, “I never give ’em hell. I just tell the truth and they think it
is hell.” That’s the way many people react to truth.
People tend to exaggerate
their success and minimize their failures or deficiencies. They live according to
Ruckert’s Law, believing there is nothing so small that it can’t be blown out of
proportion.
Unfortunately, many people today could be described by a quote from
Winston Churchill: “Men occasionally
stumble over the truth, but most pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing has happened.”
More recently,
television journalist Ted Koppel observed, “Our society finds truth too strong a
medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth
is not a polite tap on the
shoulder. It is a howling reproach.” In other words, the truth will set you free—
but first it will make you angry! If you want to become a realistic thinker,
however, you need to get comfortable dealing with the truth and face up to it.
