What is Real Optimism?
Are you a glass-is-half-full or half-empty type of person?
The answer is probably both–depending on your experiences.
In some cases, you’ll default to optimism because you have evidence to support that way of thinking. In others, you might default to pessimism because your prior experience reinforces that viewpoint. It’s also okay to be a realist, taking a neutral view. However, it’s important to realize that we can cultivate real optimism; we just need to learn what it is and how to feed that perspective.
First things first, what is Optimism?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the traditional definition of optimism is:
a doctrine that this world is the best possible world.
an inclination to put the most favourable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome (Merrian-Webster, 2025).
I don’t know about you, but Number 1 is difficult to get on board with some days, especially if you watch the news—a good reminder to be mindful of what you consume!
News media outlets often influence your mindset in a way that degrades optimism. We all get sucked into negativity. I’ve written plenty on the negativity bias before, and it is a powerful force at play in our subconscious.
Number 2 seems more favourable because it focuses on the perception we construct for our future based on the actions and events that occur in the present. I like this one, but I believe it falls short of describing real optimism.
So, what is Real Optimism?
My definition for real optimism includes a vital addition to Merriam-Webster’s. It’s more than a construction or anticipation for a positive outcome, or in other words, hope.
“Real optimism occurs when hope and trust align.”
When I was in the throes of my spinal cord injury recovery, I wondered whether I’d be okay and if I would heal. I questioned whether I would be able to accomplish the recovery I so desperately hoped for. In those moments, I reminded myself (and spoke these words frequently and often):
“If it’s not working out right now,
it just means I’m not finished yet
because things will always work out.”
The last part of that sentence is important: “because things will always work out.” This is where my hope met trust, and this powerful combination became a force for healing and overcoming obstacles in my life.
Hoping for and anticipating a positive outcome are healthy and essential components of optimism. However, if you don’t believe that things will work out, underlying limiting beliefs will stifle hope and, in some cases, lead you toward less-than-desirable outcomes.
So, optimism borders on incomplete if you don’t trust that things will work out or that a positive outcome is in your future. For the record, you could substitute “trust” with “faith” or “belief,” but the important takeaway is that you must maintain that things will always work out—always.
This is a powerful, albeit subtle, shift that releases stress, worry, and anxiety about potential negative outcomes. When you trust that things will work out, it creates steadfast optimism. You will more readily attract that positive outcome into your life because, at a subconscious level, your mind will seek evidence to reinforce and affirm your belief in that positive outcome–neuroscience is cool.
The Neuroscience:
The combination of the Reticular Activating System (RAS) in our brains and our confirmation bias working in tandem contributes to real optimism.
The RAS is a network of neurons in the brainstem that filters out sensory information that is new, different, threatening, or pleasurable. It focuses our attention and maintains alertness toward the things that we deem to be important, all while filtering out irrelevant sensory information. It determines which stimuli are important enough to reach our conscious mind, acting as a gatekeeper for your brain (Arguinchona & Tadi, 2023).
The confirmation bias describes our tendency to favour information that confirms our existing beliefs, while ignoring contradictory evidence (Cherry, 2024).
Together with mindful direction, these serve our glass-half-full disposition. The science affirms that it’s not wishful or blissful thinking if you trust that things will work out for you. It’s not fluffy optimism; it’s real because we choose to believe things work out, and our brains do the rest.
You might be skeptical, asking yourself, “Do things always work out?” It may feel like this isn’t the case, especially if you’re currently in the eye of the storm, experiencing turbulence or adversity that you have no control over. But if you look back at some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced and overcome, in most cases, it provides evidence that things work out.
If you have ever overcome a seemingly insurmountable challenge, and somehow, now you’re here and the problems you faced no longer affect you, then you can lean into this notion that things always work out. You can lean into trust.
But what if things actually didn’t work out?
If you look back and find evidence that contradicts this notion that things always work out, that’s okay. It is reality, and some things are out of our control. Still, maybe it’s worth asking yourself how much you believed the problems would resolve and how your mindset influenced the outcome.
Your evidence may reinforce pessimism in some cases, but it may be because you didn’t actually believe things would work out in that case. How might things have been different if you had? Could you have resolved the dispute? Could you have saved the relationship? Could you have made the deal/got the sale? Could you have found another way?
We all have evidence of times when things didn’t go as we hoped, just as we all have evidence of times they did. Focusing on the evidence that favours positive outcomes, particularly when things go as you had hoped, powerfully reinforces your belief that things will work out for you.
Final Thoughts
When hope and trust align, it strengthens your constructed view of a positive future. Your mind works in mysterious ways to filter out opportunities and beneficial options that will take you closer to your desired outcome. It works to confirm and affirm your thinking and beliefs.
You can construct the future you desire if you set your sights on that outcome and believe it will come true. If you have trouble believing it, you must challenge and change the limiting belief, which is sometimes easier said than done, but well worth the effort.
It’s not about blind positivity or ignoring reality, but rather trusting in yourself, your ability to adapt, or in the bigger forces at play, which shifts something. You become more resilient and start facing turbulence not as a sign to stop, but as a challenge you can move through.
Onward with gratitude,
Mike Shaw
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References:
Arguinchona, J. H., & Tadi, P. (2023, July 24). Neuroanatomy, Reticular Activating System. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK549835/#:~:text=Introduction,in%20the%20neuropeptides%20they%20release.
Cherry, K. (2024, May 19). Confirmation bias: Hearing what we want to hear. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-confirmation-bias-2795024
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Optimism definition & meaning. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/optimism
