Practicing Optimism

How's your optimism doing with Coronavirus? I think a lot of people are confused about the meaning of optimism, and they think it's just sticking a smile on it and pretending everything's fine. But at six seconds, we use the term exercise optimism because it's work, it's effort, and it's when we're struggling that we most need to do that work.

It's when we're struggling that we look around and we say, it's time for me to cross over this river and see that. On this side where I don't see possibilities, but somewhere ahead of me there, there's another perspective.

There are three bridges to cross this river and find the optimistic side. The first is to recognize that we can do something. We might not know what it is, but there is a way we will find something where we can put our energy. The second is that while there are many problems and there's a lot that's affecting us in.

Way, not everything is affected. And the third is that time is passing and the future will be different.

Let me give you a concrete example. Uh, we're all trying to wash our hands and scrub down with disinfectant, and it's easy to look at that and say, oh, we're in a dangerous world. Something's out to get me. And when we're washing our hands, what if we see it as a way of contributing? What if we see that as a way of saying, I'm doing something to make the world a better place for my family, for my community, for people around me.

And when we engage with people around us with this optimistic orientation, it liberates for them some capacity, some energy, some creativity, and it's in that space that we can actually solve problem.

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