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I’m on a train heading for London Waterloo.

On my right, sunshine through rag-scraps of cloud, a pale blue sky, puddles shining in the fields.

To my left, a row of houses lit by sunshine and framed by the purple-dark of storm clouds.

It’s like this at work. Put your focus in one direction and all seems well, things are improving, you can see the opportunities and things are trending upwards. Focus somewhere else and you see the on-coming storm with all the disruption and misery it might bring.

Which view is the right one? Do you opt for sunshine or for rain?

I think the answer might live in a story from World War II. If good luck was on their side, those that survived internment camps were not the pessimists (they just gave up) or the optimists (they lost hope when their predictions of an early release didn’t transpire). It was those who were both realists (”I’m in a PoW camp”) and optimistic (”I will one day get out”).

So how are you seeing things right now?

(That all said, I remember reading somewhere that the only people with an accurate view of reality where those of us who are clinically depressed…)

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