Optimism is Your Career Ally

Is the glass half empty or half full?

How you see it has a huge bearing on how you recover from setbacks and how happy you are in general.

I'd like to say that I was born an optimist. I'd also like to say that I can eat all the chocolate I want without gaining a pound and that the sun is shining here in Seattle on January 7. But unfortunately none of this is true.

So while I nibble on small bits of chocolate and stoically don my rain parka, I'm working on cultivating optimism. And here's why: my career and my life are going to be better for it.

Here's what sets apart the pessimists from the optimists, according to Dr. Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life,

"The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe bad events will last a long time, will undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks of the world, think about misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are confined to this one case...Confronted by a bad situation, they perceive it as a challenge and try harder."

Our careers are filled with setbacks. We may have a bad boss, a poor performing employee, a project that has gotten way out of hand, unrealistic quotas, a boring job, too much to do, budget cuts, layoffs, or unethical leadership.

Career change offers up its own share of challenges, setbacks and bad times. Lack of personal contacts in the desired field, lack of education, low starting salary in our desired position, and so on. I'm getting depressed just writing about it!

I've coached a lot of people over the last several years on all kinds of career and life issues. The optimists simply have an easier time of it, and they get where they want faster.

The good news in all this is that even people with pessimistic tendencies can cultivate optimism. This involves learning a new set of cognitive skills, as opposed to repeating happy affirmations and hoping that someday you believe them.

Seligman's book explains these skills in detail. They are rather fascinating and take some practice and some time to get the hang of.

I highly recommend you buy the book or check it out from the library for all the information, but here are a few highlights around the "ABCD" skills model.

A. Notice when you're experiencing adversity, even just a tiny example.
"I can't get a meeting with my boss this week."

B. Notice your beliefs (i.e., your interpretation) about this adversity.
"My boss is always ducking me. Why doesn't she care about what I'm doing?"

C. Notice how you feel and/or what you do (i.e., the consequences).
"I'm worried that I'm not going to be considered for the promotion I'm wanting, that I'm no longer a "player". I'm angry that I'm disregarded."

D. Distract yourself or dispute your beliefs.
Immediately shift your attention to stop ruminating. Or use evidence, alternative views, or decatastrophize. (These are very powerful skills that I just can't do justice here. Get the book!)

A little pessimism can be constructive. It can keep us from doing rash, foolhardy things. Back in our evolutionary history our pessimism mirrored the grim realities of the times: danger lurking around the next corner, most children dying before their 5th birthday, not enough food to last the winter, etc. 

But now for most of us, disaster is far less imminent. Yet the pull of pessimism can keep us stuck, unhappy, even depressed. We need optimism to inspire and fuel our plans and dreams and to propel us forward into unchartered territory.

I am deciding to be hopeful that the sun will return to Seattle, among other things. What are you deciding to be optimistic about today?

Posted by Heather Mundell

cross-posted at life@work

Comments

[Tom Volkar]

Heather thanks for this post. I love to be reminded of my natural optimism. I'm one of those who have been blessed with it. But even natural optimists can fall pray to negative thinking cycles if they don't stay diligently aware of what they are thinking.

Interesting that the ABC in his model is all about noticing or expanding ones awareness. Your readers may enjoy the work of esteemed psychotherapist Nathaniel Branden. Raising awareness is central in all of his books.

[Heather Mundell]

Tom, thanks for the suggestion about Branden.

I like to hang out with the optimists and marvel at their conviction that "everything's going to work out fine"....

[Jamie Hamburg]

Thank you for this insightful posting.

In these tough economic times, I think people under-estimate how valuable optimism is in the current talent field. A hiring manager or recruiter may find three people with similar talents and skills, but if he can tap into the person’s general attitude during the interview, he is much better off hiring the person with an optimistic outlook, even if they lack a certain skill. Those are the people who stay late until a job is complete without complaining and the people who can lead a team of pessimists into a more optimistic view and thus a more productive attitude. If I were a manager, I might recommend this book to the people I managed. Everyone can use a little sun-infusion every now and then!