Rachel Feintzeig Reminds Us To Stop Being So Cynical Already
You limit yourself when you default to this base behavior
There are a number of writers whose work I follow closely for personal and professional insights and wisdom. Cal Newport, Dr. Julie Gurner, Brad Stulberg, Kevin Kelly, James Clear, and Adam Grant are top of mind in that number.
The Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Feintzeig is another. I missed Rachel’s work when she took a break this past winter, but she’s back to filling the paper with wise, and often timely, words of wisdom when it comes to navigating the modern workplace.
Feintzeig’s latest about cynicism is one of those timely lessons, as I found myself playing the part of a cynic at work recently.
Cynicism is something I battle on the regular, in fact. Perhaps you do, too. You’ll notice that it is often a feeling that comes easily. It’s one of those negative defaults like pessimism and anger that does not serve you well when you let it take control of your actions.
The ease with which cynicism arises and takes control of what you do next is always a key indicator. Did this emotion fire off a little too easily? Am I now letting those easy feelings control my actions instead of using logic and reason? If something is too easy, it’s not often the right thing, at least in my experience.
To do quality work when it comes to your behavior — when it comes to right action — you often must choose the hard thing to do, not the easy thing.
To do good work and attain success, you have to build alliances and share information. Translation: You have to trust someone.
— Rachel Feintzeig
You won’t do anyone else a favor by checking out or by being an obstructionist, and certainly not be being a cynic. Nor are you doing yourself any favors with those behaviors. How could you live with such a person, anyway? Find a way through, use those easy emotions as information, as a way to find the right course of action, and then act for the right reasons — to serve, to help, to learn, and to grow.
Lately I am starting my day with this mantra: Envision a positive outcome. It gives you a chance at having a good, and maybe even a great, day. Too often I find myself preparing for a bad outcome on a project, or for a conversation to get heated and contentious. Instead of practicing for bad outcomes, envision a positive outcome for yourself today, for the work that you do, and for your interactions and relationships with others.
The less you fight, the less you suffer.
Starting your day with this mindset allows you to lead with optimism, and it gives you a chance against cynicism and other base behaviors. Thanks again to Rachel and her peers for the great writing and the better reminders.
Great topic. I used to always say that once you get cynical about a job, it's time to change positions or move on, but if you enjoy the actual work sometimes it is really about a perception shift and not getting sucked into the collective office negativety, or the office politics, or your own negatively. That's a low level way to operate anyway and sometimes it really is as simple as seeing things for what they are and approaching with a positive mindset.