Three Thoughts on Optimism
I've written before that "belief is the first step to take when faced with an ambitious task." Optimism matters. Positivity is important. Below are three thoughts I have about optimism:
Be optimistic.
I'll shoot you straight here. Optimists typically win in the long-run because their miscalculation of how long it will take or how likely it is to succeed motivates them to give it a try. If you knew how hard it would be and how long it would take in the beginning then you might not try in the first place.
You can't guarantee success, but you can guarantee failure: be pessimistic.
Did you have a bad day today? Probably not.
If you think you had a bad day today, chances are you most likely had a few tough moments, interactions or outcomes and you concluded that "today was a bad day." Don't let a few tough moments consume you and erode your mindset. Today probably wasn't bad. Your mindset probably is. Optimism helps change that.
Even when things aren't going your way, believe that something great is about to happen.
Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists.
To be an optimist, you don’t have to ignore all the many problems we create; you just have to imagine improving our capacity to solve problems. The world is crippled by problems and pessimists. The world is conquered by solutions and optimists.
Be optimistic now and you won't have to be pessimistic later.