How many times have you heard that we’re living in “unprecedented times”? Or that we’ve reached a “critical moment” like “never before”?
From the economy, to the environment, to geopolitics— people like to use these words to draw attention to an issue or prediction. This reflects a concept called “chronocentrism” which I recently encountered. It refers to the belief that our moment in time is more significant and defining than any other.
However, a quick look back into history shows us how much of our current age is actually “precedented”:
- In the early 80s, inflation reached a level 3 times worse than what we’re experiencing.
- As for conflict in Europe, the Balkans War in the 90s claimed the lives of 140,000 people.
- Today there are about 800 million people suffering from hunger. But that number was 1.9 billion in 1990.
Chronocentrism is somewhat unavoidable; we can’t change the time we live in, and it’s natural to believe a period that is new is also different. But the issue with chronocentrism is that it leads to opportunistic drama and pessimism. The unfortunate truth is that negativity sells much better than positivity.
However, its effects on society over time are harmful and make everyone more susceptible to falling into victimism. It’s always easier to find the negative in something rather than focus on its potential positives, as the former requires less thinking and intellectual analysis.
Positivity is often viewed as superficial, ignoring facts or being insensitive. Indeed, positivity alone won’t suffice, because it doesn’t naturally drive change.
That’s why we should embrace Positive Dissatisfaction, which involves recognising untapped potential for improvement, while acknowledging that circumstances have been worse before—and that if positive changes were possible then, we bear responsibility to enact them once more. This approach is humble, because it recognizes others’ achievements, instead of failures, but also inspiring, to be able to galvanize change.
Recently, three news inspired me to be positively dissatisfied:
- A company named Biocarbon Engineering has developed a system that utilises remote-controlled drones, capable of planting up to 400,000 trees per day!
- The ozone layer is healing. It’s on track to fully recover in 4 decades.
- Women hold nearly 14% of CEO positions in Singapore, the highest in the world.
- In the marketing industry, news and headlines often breed negativity, with a constant belief that risks and complexity are greater than ever.
So ending on a “chrono-centric” POV: there has never been a more interesting time to manage a brand than right now, so let’s live and think with an injection of Positive Dissatisfaction.
#PositiveDissatisfaction
Photo by Sidney Severin on Unsplash