Optimism is a hard topic to discuss when we are going on year three of a global pandemic. The world is kind of a scary place right now, and our kids are definitely aware of that. It is easy for a student to look at the world around him and think that the future is bleak. When they get discouraged, it can be a domino effect that leads to apathy and a lack of motivation. But it is in times like these that optimism matters the most. 

When you get into a routine of being pessimistic, you are inviting more negativity into your life. Attitude is something that I believe to be contagious. So, when you are generally negative to the people around you, they will likely start to be negative back to you. Negativity building on negativity can cause a spiral that is very hard to get out of. The good news is that the same thing can be said for positivity. If you are genuinely positive to the people around you, even if they are mostly negative, they won’t be able to help but give some of that positivity back to you. People like to be around positive people. While commiserating about things with friends or colleagues might bring you together, relationships built on a foundation of negativity or mutual hatred of another thing or person are bound to fizzle out eventually. 

The hardest part about being optimistic if you are generally a pessimistic person is just starting to think positively. If your brain is in the routine of producing negative thoughts, it is difficult to start thinking positively. There is a popular life coach online who addresses this challenge through the idea of negative self-talk. If I lost you at life coach, this person is a Harvard law school graduate and very acclaimed in her career, so it’s not your run-of-the-mill life coach working out of a strip mall. She recognizes that when you are used to having negative thoughts about yourself, it is pretty near impossible to jump straight to positive thoughts about yourself. While you could start by saying that you are dumb, and then convince yourself to say that you are smart, that doesn’t make you automatically believe that you are smart. 

In her coaching, she has coined the idea of neutral thoughts as a stepping-stone to positive thoughts. For example, if her client starts by saying, “I have a disgusting body,” she cannot expect this person to jump immediately to, “I have a beautiful body.” Instead, she uses an intermediate neutral phrase like, “I have a human body.” This might sound silly, but it can help your brain start to transition from thinking your body is disgusting to acknowledging that it is human and normal. Then when you go to start the next step of believing your body is beautiful, you aren’t starting from believing it is disgusting, but just from believing it is normal. That is a much easier jump to make. It all still takes time and dedication, but there is a way to train a negative brain to be more positive. 

I believe that this same principle can be applied to becoming more optimistic. If you throw yourself into it and just start declaring positive statements and completely turn your personality around overnight, it will not come off as genuine and ultimately your brain is likely still negating everything you are saying out loud inside your head. However, if you start simple by doing something like recognizing when you are having a negative thought and then turning it into a neutral or even positive thought, eventually you will start having less and less negative thoughts. Any easy way to do this is when you have a thought like, “this is a bad day.” Instead stop and think about it and reframe it to say, “I have had worse days, and I overcame them. This could still be a good day.” Your brain is easy to manipulate - when you tell it stuff, especially when it is repetitive, it starts to believe it. It’s the same reason why smiling when you are upset can actually trick your brain into releasing dopamine and actually making you happier. To your brain, you are using all the muscles to smile, so you must be happy - there’s no way you are just holding your mouth like that. There are a lot of little tricks like this that can help you overcome negativity. 

I didn’t spend a whole lot of time talking about why you need optimism for your career. But I believe it is fairly obvious. People like happy people. They want to be led by people who inspire them and encourage them. Having a good personality and being optimistic can carry you far in your career. It could be the extra bonus that edges out your competition and earns you a promotion or opportunity. Additionally, once you become the leader, you will more likely retain your employees for a long time if you are positive and optimistic. You spend a lot of time with your coworkers and colleagues. One negative person can really ruin the whole experience for everyone involved. Be the reason that someone else keeps his job for a long time rather than the reason he is looking for other opportunities. 

-        Bria