Optimism is a muscle

How do you go from a glass half empty to a glass half full?

They say willpower is a muscle. The more you train it, the easier it is to use.

Use discipline to build one habit, and you make it easier to build habits.

I think optimism works similarly. Being optimistic is a choice, and often it’s not an easy one. Most times, it’s just easier to give in. To see things “realistically”. To be “pragmatic”. To allow fear to mask itself as “rational thinking” and stop us from taking risks and achieving our goals.

And that’s how the muscle gets weaker.

Being optimistic is a multiplayer quest. We don’t make these choices in a vacuum. As you might imagine, the people closest to us drastically influence how we see the world.

Even the most optimistic person in the world can start seeing the world differently if they’re surrounded by skeptics.

Let me be clear - I’m not advocating for blind faith. And I’m not against planning or thinking ahead either. But one observation of starting a company is that while planning might be useful, plans are generally useless.

Things change so fast over the course of days and weeks, that building a plan and sticking to it despite changing circumstances is a weakness not a strength.

So if you don’t know what the future’s going to look like, and your job as a founder is to build that future - you probably should have a positive outlook on life. Otherwise you'll build the exact future you're trying to avoid.

So be optimistic.