What is Optimism?
With today’s uncertain business environment creating new challenges around every corner, it’s not surprising that optimism is a key consideration when it comes to resilience and business growth.
When opening the business pages of morning newspapers, we can’t avoid reference to it – organisations remaining ‘optimistic’ about their future, experts predicting their ‘optimism’ over the UK’s economy, and a general ‘optimism’ which can be caused by changes such as a new Government or a reduction in the cost of living.
We all have good days and bad.
But when you’re running a business, the effect is magnified.
One day you’re excited about a new business win; the next, you’re despairing about a valuable colleague announcing their resignation.
That expansive feeling can even spill over into other areas of your business – success feeding success to everyone’s benefit.
However, as we all know, the opposite can also happen.
Anyone can have a positive outlook when the going’s good; it takes real optimism to keep smiling when cash flow’s down, business confidence is low, and irate creditors are calling.
Yet, that’s the secret of the ‘glass half full’ brigade.
Their optimism isn’t reliant on external events – but instead it’s self-generated.
A key aspect of Optimism and as a means to feeling positive, is that it is grounded in reality! Optimistic people don’t have their heads in the sand pretending that a bad situation can be improved with the mantra of “you’ve just got to be positive”, because that is toxic positivity and is often harmful.
Optimists are grounded in reality. Photo Towfiqu Barbhuiya Unsplash
Optimistic Leaders are able to have quality conversations with their people about the size, scale and reality of the challenges that are being faced, without it scaring their people into inaction. Once they have had the “reality “conversation they are then able to lead their people to understand how they will harness their strengths, skills, behaviours and resilience to face into the challenge and come through it.
This approach creates real hope instead of false hope.
As Richard Reed, entrepreneur and co-founder of Innocent drinks brand once said: “The trick to staying positive isn’t to get too distracted by the external events you can’t control, and to double down and focus on the things that you can.”
So, let’s take a closer examination of the meaning of ‘optimism.’
Winston Churchill - the inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader who led Britain to victory in the Second World War - once famously said: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
And the Cambridge Dictionary describes it as: “the quality of being full of hope and emphasising the good parts of a situation, or a belief that something good will happen.”
Optimism is the attitude that reflects a positive disposition, hope or belief that the eventual outcome of a specific event or situation may be favourable and desirable.
It's the thinking and mindset that makes you believe that good things are bound to happen in the future - and that negative or bad situations are rare occurrences.
Optimists often choose to see the brighter side of life amidst difficulties and are happier and healthier.
Put quite simply, if you want to reduce your stress levels and be more productive, then it's important to learn how to be optimistic.
Look out for the next articles in this series – “How to Become Optimistic,” “The Importance of Optimism,” and “The Benefits of Optimism.”
If you need further information about these approaches, or any other resilience topic, please contact russell@theresiliencecoach.co.uk.