Keys to Optimism (and Why It Matters)

Olympic caliber skiers, often in the backcountry, never focus on the trees… they focus on the path. When a market shifts, successful CEOs pivot around it – rather than dwelling in issues that are not going to plan, rigid within previous expectations, they focus on opportunities. They find an open path.

This is important for all of us to understand, since we have a shared tendency to prove ourselves right. We find what we’re looking for. If you think a workday is going to be boring, then every slow moment will be proof of that idea. But if you believe the day might be interesting, you will have created a magnetism for the interesting ideas that will certainly pop up along the way. It does not mean everything will be perfect.

Optimism is one of the most powerful mindsets one can adopt. But a specific sort of optimism works best. We call it optimistic realism. It’s not the same as toxic positivity or pretending everything is always okay. When done well, optimism can boost happiness, improve relationships, and increase fulfillment. It can also be a performance enhancer.

If your team is behind late in the game, there’s still a chance. So you keep playing hard (if there’s no chance, you might fold). If your bank account is not where you want it to be, there’s still a way to earn (if the market is f*ed, why try?). And if you haven’t found that special someone yet, believing that there is a good fit for you out there can positively impact conversations with attractive strangers.

It's not always easy. On tough days, being optimistic might be one of the biggest challenges you face all day. It’s even more important on the dark days. So if you’re willing to try, here are a few essential concepts to keep in mind.

Expectations influence experience.

 Two people can (and will) experience the same objective situation differently. It goes beyond personal preferences…expectations shape perception by influencing predictive processing in the brain, leading individuals to experience the world in ways that align with anticipatory beliefs (Clark, 2013; Sharot, 2011). The expectations we bring into situations will color those situations in a real, quantifiable way. A study out of the University of Oxford noticed the ability of mindset, in the form of guided preconceptions, to change the way different people respond to the same objective experience.

Researchers provided the same food (bowls of ramen) to three different groups, then asked about their experience while measuring brain activity – the only difference between the groups was how the researchers described what they were about to eat. What they didn’t tell the subjects was that it was all the same ramen.

The ramen was described for one group as “rich and delicious”, the next group was told that they added “monosodium glutamate” to the soup, and the other group was told they were about to consume “boiled vegetable water”. Expectations had been set. But remember, there was no difference between the soup, only in how it was described.

The “rich and delicious” bowl received the highest subjective rating. But what the researchers found went beyond psychological suggestion – there were quantifiable neurological differences between the groups. They found greater activation in the pleasure centers of the brain for the “rich and delicious” group than the other two… even though it was all the same soup! The way the food was named changed the participants’ expectations and, quantifiably, their level of enjoyment (Grabenhorst et al, 2008).

If the expectations we bring to a moment impact the moment, we should stay in-tune with how we describe situations. That self-talk influences the way we engage with our environment. “Steve in accounting is always so difficult” will impact the way we engage with Steve. And “Carol just doesn’t like me” will impact all future interactions with Carol. Situation by situation, try to use optimism as your primary filter.

Optimism is connected to resilience.

Did you know that they teach workshops on optimism to the US Army? Think about that. If you are face down in the sand somewhere, and the enemy is upon you, it is optimism that fuels one's willingness to continue forward. There is courage, absolutely. There is toughness and a steadfast commitment to mission. There is grit and resilience. And they are all fueled by optimism.

Imagine a boxer getting up off the mat, bruised and beaten, but absolutely convinced that there is at least a chance, if he could just get up, step forward, and keep trying.

It is a quality shared by the highest performers of all time. It can be seen in companies that reinvent themselves through market shifts and economic downturns. They focus not on the trees, but new paths through the forest, the new opportunities.

It can be seen in relationships that go the distance, wherein each partner is willing to engage with the hard stuff, to support the other through challenges, with complete optimism that, together, they will be stronger on the other side.

Studies in affective neuroscience reveal that optimistic individuals recover more quickly from stress due to stronger regulatory pathways between the prefrontal cortex and emotion centers like the amygdala (Etkin et al., 2011). This enhanced recovery pattern is a defining component of psychological resilience.

Martin Seligman’s work with the U.S. Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program demonstrated that teaching cognitive skills rooted in learned optimism significantly improved soldiers’ resilience, emotional regulation, and stress recovery (Seligman et al., 2011). The program’s findings show that optimism is not a soft trait but a measurable protective factor that strengthens psychological endurance in high-pressure environments. Even tough guys – especially tough guys – work on developing optimism.

Optimism is not the enemy of realism.

Believe it or not, in the greater discussion of performance, this is a spot where people will occasionally push back. They will say things like, “I’m not an optimist, I’m a realist.” Fair enough. There’s a real world out there. And it can be tough. That’s true. But optimism is not the enemy of realism.

You can of course be realistic and optimistic. If you spill coffee on your work, maintaining optimism does not mean you will be pleased with the stain. It means that you believe that you can successfully pilot the situation. Imagine two potential thought pathways in the spilled coffee example:

•       Through a pessimistic lens, one’s thoughts might go to the cost of the shirt, wasted, convinced that there’s no way to get the stain out; this might make you late to a meeting, what a s*itty way to start the day; I’m such a clutz.

•       Through an optimistic lens, thoughts might include the idea that “well, that’s too bad.” You might still wonder if the stain will come out, but thoughts trend toward solutions – I’ll toss this in the wash and grab the blue shirt from the closet; if I’m behind, I’ll send a message to the folks in my meeting, hope they understand; I can figure this out.

Optimism requires believing that, despite the real situation, there are always options. There’s always a chance. Maximizing your ability to adapt and maximizing what chances are available (the paths through the trees) hinges, in part, on optimism.

Moving Forward in a threat-centered world.

Your brain appears predisposed to detect and prioritize threats, a tendency sometimes called the “negativity bias.” Negative events have a disproportionately greater psychological impact than equally intense positive ones, which researchers interpret as a survival-relevant feature: paying more attention to “bad” than “good” would have helped ancestors spot danger and survive (Baumeister et al., 2001; Cacioppo & Gardner, 1999).This a neurobiological event, as circuits centered on the amygdala appear to selectively prioritize threat-related stimuli, making the brain especially sensitive to cues of danger, even when there is no immediate risk (Shackman, 2019).

Although we are no longer living in the Pleistocene, our brains continue to privilege threat-based information, yet studies show that deliberately shifting attention toward what is going well and what is possible can reshape subjective experience and improve overall well-being (Fredrickson, 2001). With consistent practice, orienting toward opportunity rather than threat becomes one of the most reliable pathways to greater happiness.

It's natural. But to a degree, it’s optional. Choose the optimistic option. Even when the cards seem stacked against us, optimism might be exactly what we need, if only to reshuffle the deck, or give ourselves the best chance to play the hand we’ve been dealt to its greatest outcome.