Self-Mastery Tip: Cultivating Realistic Learned Optimism
by Dr. Brian Higley | 1 comment
Many personal and professional growth sources touch on the association between optimistic outlooks and success and/or satisfaction. Our team has found that both research and our own personal experience has revealed two things to be true when it comes to optimism:
- That an optimistic outlook that is grounded in realism can be extremely helpful to well-being, personal effectiveness and relationship satisfaction.
- That many believe it is more “realistic” to be pessimistic than it is to have an optimistic outlook. This often false belief is often a major barrier to the cultivation of this aspect of Self-Mastery.
This shows how critical it can be to cultivate an optimistic outlook that is also based on realism (as opposed to optimism generated through “rose colored glasses”). Unrealistic optimism can be as damaging as pessimism when it comes to the ability to achieve important goals or experience satisfaction in life, so learning how to be both realistic and optimistic is critical. (more…)
