Daily Inspiration: “‘It is what it is’ is an admission of defeat. ‘It will be what I choose to make it’ is a sign of wisdom!”

“‘It is what it is’ is an admission of defeat. ‘It will be what I choose to make it’ is a sign of wisdom!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

I really dislike the phrase “it is what it is,” even though I use it a lot because to me, it seems to involve a mindset of failure; accepting the status quo; unable to see a pathway forward. If you study the history of innovation, you’ll find that those who have achieved wild success never really fall into that mindset of certain defeat – they have a different type of energy that keeps them going.

That is because innovative people are different

Innovative people never accept things the way they are -they choose to make them the way they want things to be.

They never set out with failure in mind – success is their only goal.

They never question their inability to do something – they figure out how to do it.

They refuse to say the phrase ‘I can’t do it’ – they figure out how it could be done.

They never presume that their idea won’t work – they figure out a way to make it work.

They never give up after one attempt – an iterative series of small success steps is often their process.

They don’t fall into the trap of believing they know all they can about something – because they are always busy figuring out how to learn everything.

They don’t listen to those who tell them that it is a dumb idea – because they are too focused on making it into a great idea.

They don’t understand the mindset of those who give up – because in their mind, the only reality is a mindset to keep going.

They don’t waste their energy in trying to win over the skeptics in advance of their great idea – they simply make their idea a reality and let the results speak for themselves.

They’ll never understand the mindset of those who accept small ideas driven by small minds – because their minds are too consumed by big ideas.

They struggle to comprehend why some people are always prepared to accept the status quo – because they have never really accepted that standing still is an option.

They don’t align themselves with the old ideas of yesterday but conceive of the big, brash ideas of tomorrow.

They never waste a moment questioning their skills and capabilities – because they are constantly developing new ones.

They often won’t spend time trying to win consensus through committees and groupthink – because they know that the effort might often prove to be a futile waste of time.

They don’t listen to the concepts of those who are busy trying to preserve old business models – because they are too busy building a new and different one.

They simply cannot accept that the way the world is today is the way it will have to be tomorrow because their goal is to change it.

They don’t look at an existing product and think about how to improve upon it – they conceive of and design an entirely new product.

I could go on.

Static people are stuck in place. Innovative people are always moving forward.

Who do you choose to be?