You Can’t Fake Optimism

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. ~ Vaclav Havel

If you search online for inspirational quotes about optimism, you will find a bunch of crap proclaiming that without an optimistic viewpoint a person’s world will stop turning. Optimism is one of those misunderstood concepts that in and of itself mean relatively little. Those who make a profit on optimism and inspirational lectures would have you believe that it can be created where it never existed before out of thin air, smoke and mirrors. The truth is that optimism is a part of the human condition and can only be maintained, not created or destroyed. If there is a total absence of the seeds of optimism in a person, that defines the need for a therapist and not a one-size-fits all motivational slogan.

In managing employees, who by the way are actually human beings in case you forgot, you need to understand that everyone has a different starting point on the optimism spectrum. Some must be dragged kicking and screaming into a positive way of thinking and others will be there before you tell them to go. This is not to say that human resources professionals and managers should practice amateur psychotherapy, but it does mean that a person’s outward demeanor or emotional outburst comes from somewhere deeper than that surface eruption. Jumping to a wrong conclusion or assuming that this is a body inhabited by a dark soul is self defeating.

If you believe, truly believe, that every person has the seeds of optimism with the ability to grow and flourish, it doesn’t take pious platitudes or protracted preaching to bring them forth. Those gardening tips can be used best for fertilizing growth. The most useful tactic to germinate that seed is to first eliminate the negatives that are crowding out an effective outlook. Stunted emotional growth does not originate with a lack of inspirational sayings. It usually means that the footpath over it has been beaten down by repeated negative outcomes or perceptions of failure. Eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive, as the old song says.

Sometimes even the best efforts cannot change someone who has a perpetual half-empty glass and refuses to choose a positive approach to life. It is a management responsibility… perhaps even a moral obligation of humanity… to try and erase or ease negative impressions, but if that fails there is hope that the contagion of negativity doesn’t invade surrounding people. Encourage feedback from those who have half-full glasses and reward them for their outlook.

I grew up in a family where my mother drilled her mantra into all of us every day: “Everything always works out for the best.” Mom was right, but not because this is a truism that would apply to just anyone. She also gave us lessons in faith that we could deal with anything and also a smattering of reality that we can make the best out of any outcome. Damn she was smart!

 
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