The idea of hating our jobs is ingrained in our culture. Only recently has the tide shifted to encourage people to do what they’re “passionate” about (though I would argue that passion isn’t enough). We still live in a “working for the weekend” world that dreads Mondays, sees the workweek as a slog, and can’t wait for five o’clock on Friday.
We spent approximately 90,000 hours of our lives working. Thirteen years. Almost a quarter of our lives.
Why should we spend that much time in a mindset of misery? There’s power in optimism — not only for our career performance but our health and longevity, too. Optimism seems straightforward, but it’s not the same thing as being happy or even practicing positive-thinking. These things can play a role, but they aren’t at the heart of what it means to be optimistic.
Optimism is being future-minded. Focusing on the things in life (and work) that are good. It’s believing in the best outcomes and future for yourself and others.
4 Major Ways Optimism Benefits Your Career
1) It reduces your stress.
If you know me, you know how much stress management matters to me. It’s one of the core things that I talk about. If you want to reduce your stress, change your mindset. Studies show that optimism increases our lifespan. It also can lower chances for long-term disease. I believe that this is because of the correlation between optimism and stress.
Stress can be straining on our bodies — it affects our sleep, blood pressure, and overall health in ways we might not recognize but we always feel. Being optimistic isn’t just about performing better at work (though it certainly helps). It’s about living your best life, mentally and physically.
2) It reworks how you handle failure.
In life, we will all face failure. It’s just a part of being human. You can let these failures crush you or you can see them as opportunities. This doesn’t make failure or mistakes sting less, but it does transform your response — and thus, mitigates the effects of a failure in the long-term. You’ll be able to see your opportunities to grow, problem-solve, and bounce back. So many famous businessmen and entrepreneurs suffered major failures and setbacks in their time. Some of these failures would be considered career-ending. But we know that that’s not how the story ended. Instead, those failure creating a foundation of experience that facilitated greater growth and success.
This can happen, but only if we approach failure without fear or pessimism. Optimism indicates high levels of success and effort from professionals. In the same way, we can prevent negative self-fulfilling prophecies. Our mindset has a lot to do with our success or failure. Starting with a belief that you will succeed — or at least, that everything will work out — is the beginning of seeing that success.
3) It boosts your motivation.
When we live in a world where only 35 percent of employees are engaged in their jobs (costing billions in lost revenue), we can’t afford to check out. A spirit of optimism is motivating because it opens your mind to opportunities. While you might not succeed at everything, you are given the hope that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. You don’t see the difficulty, but instead, you see opportunity.
When you frame your tasks in this light, you are much more likely to stay motivated. If we don’t believe that we will succeed, it’s hard to want to do the work to begin with.
4) It makes you attractional.
Let’s be honest. Pessimism is not an attractive quality. None of us want to spend time with people who are always pointing out the bad in the world. We just don’t need to hear all of the reasons something isn’t going to work, why you’re going to fail, or how none of it matters anyway. That mentality saps our energy and willpower — not to mention it’s downright depressing.
Optimism and pessimism are both contagious, but only one is desirable. When you have a spirit of optimism, it will better encourage those around you to work hard, take chances, and believe in the best — whether it’s in the future, in others, or in themselves.
How do you maintain a spirit of optimism in the workplace? Share your tips in the comments.