How To Develop Optimism

1. Look for the benefit in every situation, especially when you experience setbacks.
2. Seek the valuable lesson in every problem or difficulty – remember there are no mistakes, only lessons.
3. Focus on the task to be accomplished rather than your negative emotions, such as disappointment or fear, and see the possibilities within the task.
4. View success and happiness as your normal state and see negative events as temporary glitches on the path to your inevitable success.
5. Don’t take setbacks personally; take responsibility but recognize the influence of external factors on the situation.
6. Choose to put a positive spin on it, whatever it is.
7. View every experience as a positive opportunity for growth and self-mastery.
8. Decatastrophise and ask yourself: “What’s the worst thing that could happen, and can I live with it?” Then focus on doing everything you can to minimize the fallout.
9. Depersonalize and redefine situations in terms of their external causes.
10. Dispute negative pervasive thoughts by identifying your irrational thinking and replace it with more reasonable or rational thinking.

[from “Emotional Capitalists; The New Leaders”. by Dr. Martyn Newman]