This cheerful message, created more than 100 years ago, was first published in the New York Sun newspaper in 1904 as

In 1929, a restaurant in Charleston, West Virginia, revitalized The Optimist’s Creed’s wording and message. The Optimist’s Creed was displayed in the restaurant’s window and written in more contemporary language for the patrons. The targeted audience was customers who drank coffee and ate “sinkers,” another word for donuts.

I am realizing how frequently I focus on what I’m missing, what I’m not enough of, what I can “do better.”  This is focusing on the hole — not the doughnut.  and really, I’m a pink, fluffy, rainbow sprinkled kind of doughnut.

This lacuna-focus is insidious.  Ironically, it keeps me from growing.  It keeps my attention on something to fix/improve before I can step out and do something difficult (e.g., I can’t write a book like that — I’m still a short-tempered, cuss at other drivers kind of person! A mystic, huh?  You don’t look like a mystic. etc., etc.)  The lacuna’s seduction has me thinking that if I fix these shortcomings then I can be something greater.  Only there’s always a new thing to fix and I can never quite get it right.