Something good is about to happen

Sports psychologist Michael Gervais defines optimism as having a mindset where you believe, deep-down that 'something good is about to happen'.

Optimism is a state of mind; a way of seeing the world.

Believing that you have the agency to decide and choose from a selection of options that will deliver a better future.

Optimists ask questions like 'what's next?', 'what's new?', 'what's happening?'.

They are constantly looking forward to something or planning things to look forward to.

That's not to ignore the contextual landscape, culture, and huge shifts that affect us depending on their relation to us, but it is about recognising and assessing the forces of change that are beyond our control and finding a path towards a better tomorrow by leveraging these insights.

Optimism is not a mindset that comes naturally, our fight or flight evolutionary brain is attuned to spotting danger early for our survival.

We default to pessimism.

Optimism, therefore, requires ongoing mind training and practice - just like you would sign up to a gym if you were wanting to train your body.  

Life doesn't always go the way that you would want it to all of the time, but through the mindful practice of developing an optimistic mindset, you will always be searching for the lesson in disaster and believing that good things are still ahead of you.

A better tomorrow starts with a developed and trained optimistic mindset. Without it, you'll just be repeating the past over and over again.