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How to turn the mundane into the magnificent.

Do you long for a deeper connection with yourself and the world around you? Why not start by transforming your daily grooming habits into a profound spiritual practice?

Take shaving as an example. Shaving one’s face in the morning is often seen as a tedious task, a routine to be rushed through, even a burden to be endured. But it doesn’t have to be.  That’s why SuperOptimists have gravitated to the practice of “Happy Shave!” By infusing your shaving routine with intention, gratitude, and joy, you can elevate it from a mundane task to a meaningful spiritual practice.

The spiritual dimension of “Happy Shave” lies in its ability to foster mindfulness and presence. Shaving is not just about removing hair from your face or body. With its repetitive and rhythmic motions, shaving provides an ideal opportunity to slow down, focus on the sensations, and truly immerse yourself in the experience. Glide the razor across your skin. Feel the warmth of the water, the scent of the shaving cream, the smoothness of the blade. Each stroke becomes an act of self-care and compassion.

Add to your experience with a Happy Tee.

The physical benefits of “Happy Shave” are also worth noting. Shaving is not just about aesthetics; it can also have a positive impact on your skin and overall well-being. Regular shaving can exfoliate the skin, removing dead cells and promoting a healthy glow. It can also improve the texture of your skin, making it smoother and softer to the touch. Shaving can also help to prevent ingrown hairs, reduce irritation, and provide a clean canvas for skincare products to penetrate and work effectively. Taking care of your skin through “Happy Shave” can be a form of self-love and self-care, promoting a healthy and vibrant complexion.

“Happy Shave” is an opportunity to start with a clean slate and set the tone for the day. It can go beyond razoring your face. Consider creating a ritual that aligns with your personal beliefs and values. This could include lighting a candle, saying a prayer, or simply taking a few deep breaths to center yourself. By infusing your shave with intention, you are not only caring for your physical appearance but also nurturing your soul.  We hope you enjoy exploring the spiritual, physical, and mental benefits of shaving with this newfound perspective.

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Was Superman a SuperOptimist?

On this day in 1938, the first true superhero comic book was born. And the artist? Joseph “Joe” Shuster.

You might think that Joe lived a charmed existence after Superman became a hit. Instead, Joe’s life was wrenched by a series of unforeseen tragedies, starting with selling the rights Superman for a mere $130.  For a couple of comic book guys back then, this wasn’t unheard of.  Plus they received a contract to keep coming up with new stories.  What more could you ask for?

Later, after Superman had become a success, the pair tried to void the contract. No dice. Eventually after more legal hassles, the comic book company used other artists and writers to create new Superman stories, and removed Joe’s name from the title altogether.

As you might guess, Joe’s career headed mostly downwards after that. Despite trying to create another smash hit, he couldn’t find much traction with titles like Funnyman (a TV comedian becomes a superhero, using practical jokes to render criminals helpless!). Eventually Joe’s eyesight went bad, preventing him from drawing. He worked as a deliveryman to keep food on the table, moving in with his mother for a time.

The only saving grace for Joe was a protest movement in the ‘70s that helped restore his name to the Superman franchise. In order to not incur the wrath of the public, DC comics also agreed to give him a yearly stipend of $20,000 and health insurance (later raised to a whopping $30,000). Despite this backhanded acknowledgement, Joe fell into debt and died of congestive heart failure and hypertension.

So why is Joe’s story one that a SuperOptimist can celebrate? Because Joe created what is arguably the most successful comic book character in history! Because he was a human being and made mistakes in areas that he wasn’t skilled in, like reading fine print and engaging in corporate malfeasance! Because he had to deal with pain and suffering like we all do! Because many artists get ripped off during their lives by corporate entities, and yet the white collar criminals who screwed Joe out of his creation will die in anonymity, while Joe remains a true American hero!

Finally, would there be a SuperOptimist with a Superman? Probably not! So here’s to Joe Shuster. May his creation continue to battle the forces of evil, and take out a few corporate attorneys in the process!

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Accepting defeat the Samoan way.

When the Australian and American Samoan football clubs met in a qualifying match for the FIFA World Cup in 2001, Australia broke a world record for the largest victory in an international game, winning 31–0.

Not only was the American Samoa team seriously outmatched, they faced passport issues so only one member of their original 20-man senior team was eligible to play.  They had to recruit youth players, including three 15-year-olds, to form a makeshift team. Some of them had never played a full 90 minutes before the match with Australia.

Yet the American Samoans showed their fa’asamoa—the Samoan way—by not losing their spirit and even singing and embracing the audience as the match ended.* Goalie Nicky Salupsa said that he enjoyed the match and “wasn’t embarrassed because we all learned something from it. If we had all our players, maybe it would have been only five or six goals, because I was without my best defenders and there was nothing I could do.” Coach Tony Langkilde also stated that “now we are recognised by FIFA, it has really helped spark an interest in football on the islands.”

What’s more, the American Samoa team that got crushed is now celebrated in two movies, one a documentary that revisits the historic loss and shows them 13 years later, still the worst team in FIFA:

And now there’s a fictionalized version coming out this year with the same title that puts actors like Michael Fassbender and Elizabeth Moss to work replicating the 2014 story. So who are the losers now? Put your fa’asamoa to use and see what happens when you fail next. Hollywood might just come calling.

*Other examples of fa’asamoa are:

  • Asking for permission before taking photos, using the beach, or doing other activities in a village.
  • Sitting down on the floor and covering your legs with a mat when you enter a traditional house (fale).
  • Respecting Sunday as a day of church, rest, and quietness.
  • Speaking politely and saying “tulou” when you walk in front of someone who is seated.
  • Honoring your family (aiga), your language (tautala Samoa), your genealogy (gafa), your chief (matai), your church (lotu), and your obligations (fa’alavelave).
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What Immortals These Fools Be.

Let’s face it. We live in a world that values rationality, logic and common sense. If you are equipped with these three strengths, you will avoid risks, learn from your mistakes, and plan wisely for your future. You certainly wouldn’t be foolish enough to do the following:

You wouldn’t be fired from your newspaper job for lacking imagination and creativity and have the gall to think you could create an iconic entertainment empire. 1

You wouldn’t keep sending out the manuscript of your novel after it had been rejected twelve times. 2

If you couldn’t make your high school basketball team as a sophomore, you wouldn’t dream of showing up the next year to get humiliated again. 3

And if 26 of the campaigns you attempted for political office ended in defeat, you wouldn’t keep banging your poor head against the same immovable object. 4

What kind of fools are so dumb that they don’t get the hint and do it anyway? The kind that relish proving others wrong, climbing the mountain that everyone says they can’t, and don’t mind acting in ways that are unconventional, unpredictable and often irrational.

Running your own fool’s errand is a way of expressing your individuality, exploring your potential and discovering new possibilities. It is a way of having fun, making friends and creating memories. It is a way of living in the moment, enjoying the journey and not worrying about the destination.

Of course, foolish behavior has its risks and drawbacks. It can lead to embarrassment and regret. It can alienate you from your family, friends or colleagues. It can get you into trouble with the law, and your boss. And you might fail so bad, everybody laughs when they see you coming.

But if you’re willing to take the chance and go out on your own limb, you have a shot at being truly alive. (Even if you saw it off and hit every branch on the way down.) So go ahead and be foolish. Try something crazy, make the mistakes, laugh at yourself, and don’t let anyone rob you of what makes your foolish heart tick. These crackpots sure did:

1 The guy who co-created Mickey Mouse

2 Author of seven Harry Potter books

3 Successful Nike pitchman

4 The 16th President of the United States

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Why is Albert smiling?

Is your life a giant bag of screwups, fuckups, near misses, unrealized dreams, cancelled holidays, unexpected diagnoses, strained relationships, complete misunderstandings and crazy accidents?

Terrific!

Good friends die, enemies prosper, children grow up and blame you for their misfortune?

Marvelous!

Your marriage is dull and/or the single life is wanting, the cocktail parties are full of idiots, that lottery ticket is never the big winner, the thousand dollar mattress promising you restful sleep didn’t deliver, and your self-discipline vanishes every time you see a doughnut wearing a chocolate glaze?

Wonderful!

ChatGPT4 and the rest of the AI bandwagon is coming for your job, your paycheck, your identity and your dignity?

Superb!

Why is all this aggravation such stupendous news? Because you have arrived at the place of understanding that life is simply absurd. And you’re trapped like a rat in it. Unless, of course, you decide to take the next exit to nonexistence, which is always an option.

But if you decide to hang around, you’re now presented with what a beard-stroking psychologist would call “an opportunity for growth.”

To that end, we are not only pleased to point you towards the Class 2 philosophy known as SuperOptimism, we also want to credit our friend Albert Camus with penning the definitive treatise on such unpleasantness.

According to Al, you have three choices:

  1. Believe in God and spend your time praying to be let into the gates of heaven.
  2. Commit suicide.
  3. Embrace the absurdity of existence and enjoy rolling your rock up the hill.

Camus encourages us to choose Door #3, and find happiness in our struggle by acknowledging its futility and thereby defying the gods. So why not join Albert in smiling at the ridiculousness of it all?*

* Especially if you wish you were a world-renowned poet but instead spend most of  your time writing promotional copy for a chain of fast-casual restaurants.

 

 

 

 

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Why we’re not entering Finland’s Happiness Contest.

Finland wants to send 10 lucky people on a 5 day sojourn to discover why their piece of the planet has been voted “the happiest country on earth.” The coaching will cover four key themes: nature and lifestyle, health and balance, design and everyday, and food and well-being.

We applaud their marketing team for coming up with this “masterclass for happiness” campaign and wish them well as they collect contestants’ vital information and demand that they spread the word of the Finns on tiktok.

But is it necessary to go to Finland to experience happiness?  Let’s examine whether winning this trip to Finland will actually raise your mood level to “maximum joy.”

First off, having all your travel expenses paid by the Finns definitely raises the spirits. So score “plus five” on the happiness scale.

But you still have to get there. Say you’re leaving from New York. Getting to the Kuru Resort will take approximately 13 1/2 hours. Plus packing, getting to the airport, going through customs, waiting around. Let’s say all told it’s 18 hours door to door. This scores a “minus three” in the happiness category.

What about the gasoline, jet fuel, and other climate irritants that are being used to propel your stiff body from one continent to another? Should these be counted against the Finns “close relationship with nature?” Score “minus three” there.

So you’ve arrived at the Kuru private resort. It looks pretty swank, assuming you like thread counts. So score “plus two.” But you’re a little jet-lagged from the trip and the time change and the changeover in Helsinki, so yo wander around in a daze, hoping to shake off the lethargy. “Minus one” for that.

But now you’re going to spend four days listening to so-called “happiness experts” lecture you on things that will promote well-being. Like getting enough sleep, going for walks in the woods, eating well, and surrounding yourself with expensive luxury items.  That seems like the Finnish version of a “Hilton Resort Excursion” where you get cheap accommodations in exchange for listening to a sales pitch on time shares. Thanks, but no thanks. “Minus three.”

There’s more to examine, but so far the Finns score a “minus three” on our happiness scale. But we acknowledge some people love to fly halfway around the world to shack up in a remote luxury hotel and listen to people with accents talk about pampering yourself for five days.

The reality of Finland, like with any other dot on the map, is that there’s more to life than a luxury resort in the woods.  Here’s a reminder of what it’s like to walk through Helsinki in January. And that’s why the Finnish have a saying, kalsarikännit, which translates as “pantsdrunk,” and refers to the practice of binge-drinking at home alone in your underpants. That won’t make the media campaign, but it does explain why they’re sending you to one of their luxury resorts in June.

As for us SuperOptimists, we will take the Finns four-point plan and institute it closer to home. We will spend the next five days walking through the woods with our dog, taking naps, eating well, wearing a fluffy bathrobe, and taking hot baths. We will also give ourselves lots of credit for doing all this without needing any instruction from the Finns.

 

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Why we’re ignoring “Optimist Day” again this year.

Optimist Day is the first Thursday in February, so you might think we’d be making plans to toss confetti and dance the samba. But we’re not optimists. We’re SuperOptimists. As such, we celebrate our contrarian view of optimism at off-peak times, when there are no lines at our favorite restaurant and there are plenty of seats available on the M5 bus.

The Tuesday before Optimist Day is a good time to reflect on the difference between plain old ordinary optimism and our supercharged, quantum state belief system. Herewith, we offer the following explanation, culled from the transmitters’ original manuscript, to clarify what is meant — in broad terms — by SuperOptimism.

In the Figure 1 diagram , you will see the mental states that are commonly experienced by human beings. They range from a state of despair to a state of joy. The “gates” to these opposites, joy and despair, are optimism and pessimism.

Hence, the three working definitions which help us to better understand the significance of placing the word “Super” before the word “Optimist.”

Optimist: One who usually expects a favorable outcome.

Pessimist: One who usually expects a negative outcome.

SuperOptimist: One who has learned the mental discipline to reframe any situation into a favorable outcome.

Therefore, we may extrapolate the following: If the situation is good, the SuperOptimist reframes it as “even better.” If the situation seems bad, negative, gloomy, sad, doomed, or awful, then the SuperOptimist reframes that so-called “bad” situation into one that is just as “good” as a good situation. Or better.

Sometimes it will seem very difficult to reframe an event (parking ticket, bad haircut, influenza, divorce) in a SuperOptimistic way, but fortunately for us, humans are very good at building habits into habitual behavior. Simply stated, if you can make a habit of being a SuperOptimist for 5 minutes today, you can be one for 10 minutes tomorrow, and 20 the next day.

Here’s to celebrating SuperOptimist Day each day you’re above ground. (Which includes today assuming you’re reading this.) Best wishes.

 

 

 

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Have a Happier 2023.

Quit vaping. Start making real money in the stock market. Quit dating losers. Start learning how to code. Get off social media.
2023 is here, and with it the pressure to halt all our bad habits, right all our wrongs, improve our posture and lose 15 pounds.
But is attempting the impossible the best way to start the day, much less the decade? We think not. In our view, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with ringing in the new year by eating an extra helping of gourmet chocolate while watching reruns of “30 Rock”.  (If that’s what you enjoy doing, of course.)
Here’s the resolution the SuperOptimist always adopts, whether it’s New Year’s Day, Arbor Day, All Saint’s Day, or just another Wednesday: “All is well, life is swell, and I’m good just the way I am.”
By starting the new year accepting every screw-up, flaw, and mistake as the price of being human, you have a 130% better chance of enjoying the first days of the fresh annum.  So ignore all those life coaches with their exhortations to improve everything about yourself.  If they want to drink celery juice and get on the scale five times a day, that’s their problem, not yours!
Remember, the definition of resolution is “the firm decision to do or not do something.” Why not make a firm decision to make no decisions about your future, and enjoy the first month of the year without putting undo pressure on yourself?
By starting 2020 this way, you might find this turns out to be “your year” after all.*
*If you are compelled to figure out how to improve your life in 2023, we suggest looking back on what worked in 2022.  Here’s a short quiz to separate the pluses from the minuses. By doubling down on the good stuff, you’ll assure yourself of more personal victories in the coming year.
MY PERFORMANCE REVIEW 2022
 What was the best thing I experienced in 2022?
 What was a huge waste of my energy?
 What activity gave me the most pleasure?
 What was my bravest failure?
 What can I try that I haven’t?
 What error can I avoid now that I see it?
 What did I fear in 2022 that I survived?
 Did I handle the bad shit well?
 How many times did I feel joy?
 Who did I like hanging out with?
 Who would I prefer never seeing again?
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Removes brain fog instantly!

Inside The SuperOptimist Guide to Unconventional Living, you’ll find an eclectic assortment of experiments and activities to help you challenge the steady drip-drip-drip of pre-programmed thought that humans have developed over the eons. 

With estimates now placing 89% of our brain function as habitual reactions to circumstance — checking our phones, working at repetitive tasks, binge-watching television, wearing shoes — The SuperOptimist Guide is designed to upend social constructs that have become calcified in homo sapiens. 

By adopting a practice of “daily self-provocation,” this book encourages the reader to explore big questions, gaze into other dimensions, and seek out new adventures — with positivity, humor and spirit intact. 

Kirkus calls the book “Playfully counterintuitive…At every turn, Whitten and Morton vigorously urge their readers to shake off old habits and embrace new ways of thinking. An idiosyncratic but ultimately uplifting approach to life and all its complications.”

This new volume should appeal to anyone attracted to creative pursuits, philosophical musings, white magic, Zen Buddhism, transcendentalism, left-field thinking, right-brain experiments, or post-humanism. And amusement. That too.

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The benefits of Nohemian living.

While positivity is a the central objective of SuperOptimism, it’s often by saying “no” that we can achieve some of life’s most empowering results. Consider all the insidious little things that waste time, do us no good, or ruin our chances for a better outcome. These are habits we are socially conditioned to perform, yet add nothing to our lives. Certainly there are at least 65 things you do every day that you don’t care much about. What if you said “no” to these soul-sucking activities that pull you away from your essential purpose?
If you explore the radical power of saying “no” more often, you may become a NOHEMIAN — a person who has changed their habits to say no more often. It’s based on the old cultural idea of “bohemian.” Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people and with few permanent ties. It involves musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual pursuits. In this context, bohemians may be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds. A more economically privileged, wealthy, or even aristocratic bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as haute bohème (literally “high Bohemia”).

Nohemia is directly related to Bohemia, as it too is an unconventional lifestyle in a world of “yes” men and women. Saying no means you are less controlled by the outside influences imposed on you by other people and more responsive to your own internal, authentic nature. You are able to assert yourself by turning your back on nonsensical social mores and the small insults a person must endure in the course of an average day.

The best way to learn how to say “No” is to sit down with a piece of paper, reflect on your day, and write down things that you can say “no” to. Your list may look something like this:

1. No TV after 11 PM
2. No fake bullshit corn chips, only real corn chips.
3. No self-doubt.
4. No answering phone with unrecognizable number.
5. No Facebook.
6. No pointless hairspray.
7. No cheap pizza, ever.
8. No use of weird-smelling soaps.
9. No cleaning the kitchen floor.
10. No Black Friday shopping (in person)
By saying “No,” you are putting yourself in the driver’s seat, displaying conviction where others choose to waffle, bend and break. Watch how many people want to ride shotgun in your car once you do! As for Fear of Missing Out? From our experience, there’s always another bus a’ coming.
*If it’s difficult to say “no” directly, here are some other ways to get the point across.
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