Optimism

I can make this a good post

I am a pessimist by nature. I see the flaws, the imperfections, the “it would have been better if” in every situation. But I’ve made the conscious choice to “silver lining” things for years, and, if you are also a natural pessimist, I think it’s worth trying.

I’m not recommending that you become like that hat-wearing dog in the famous meme…

(http://www.savethis.space/file/5f92d237d0ee5e74f9b6f5ec1f502a2c)

…since you are far more likely to succeed at things if you base your thinking in reality. However, you can build your sense of self-efficacy through thoughts like, “This team can get through this,” or “Having to make this change will give me the opportunity to fix this other, related thing I’ve been wanting to do,” or “Sure, a huge tree just fell on my house and destroyed half my roof, but no one was hurt; we have good insurance, and we can get the repairs done before it gets cold this fall*.”

We don’t always have a choice in what happens to us. We DO have a choice in how we respond to it—how we frame our thoughts and choose our actions. When we focus our efforts on creating a vision for a successful resolution of the issue, and then strategize an action plan with the steps we can take to get there, we are focusing on the positive, rather than wallowing in the “why me?” or the “this sucks” emotional morass that saps our energy. And that means we develop a plan to get through the tough times, and have the energy to actually do it.

Like Churchill said, “If you're going through hell, keep going.”

*BTW, this last one comes from my real life right now.