Realistic Thinking

leadership personal growth realistic thinking Mar 06, 2020

REALISTIC THINKING is the ability to recognize the facts and build certainty around them. It is the process by which you take your dream from wish to will.

How does it work?
Realistic Thinking is fuel for driving results. Based on the work of a Wharton and Columbia business school professor, these two actions can help:

1. Acknowledge the gap between where you are today and where you want to be in the future.
Map your growth and the narrowing of the gap on a timeline to determine what is realistic.

2. Beware of linear thinking. When we’re talking about personal development, you can’t expect to see constant, uphill growth day after day, year over year. It’s a journey with a varying pace. That doesn’t mean you don’t challenge yourself. It means you remember to be patient when a season of growth requires more time or effort than you’d originally thought.

Realistic Thinking in action:
Campbell Soup Company was steadily declining. Their headquarters was situated in Camden, New Jersey, one of the poorest and most crime-ridden cities in the United States. While other companies thought it smart to move out and abandon ship, Campbell’s faced the facts and chose to get deeply involved in improving the well-being of the children in Camden.

As a food company, working hand-in-hand with a cadre of strategic local and national partners, we centered our efforts on health and nutrition. The project, still in its infancy, is focused on cutting the BMI (Body Mass Index) of Camden’s 23,000 children in half over the next decade. It includes bringing nutritionists into schools and having Campbell’s chefs help parents think about ways to serve healthy food at home… Campbell is also sponsoring activities for youth to increase physical fitness in schools and to help them remain active and occupied when school is not in session.

And the company is developing the areas all around its world headquarters — leveling run-down buildings to attract commerce. – Douglas R. Conant, former CEO Campbell Soup Company

It’s an ambitious community agenda that has advanced Campbell’s corporate agenda by focusing on the real challenges of food and nutrition in the community. The result will transform their brand and reinvigorate their mission.

Do it now:
Require projections to be backed up with ownership. This will help you develop accountability with the outcomes you aim for and determine how realistic they are.

Wise words on Realistic Thinking:
“Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.” – John Galsworthy