2024-08-05 14:45:04
Your foresight will be appreciated by your boss and colleagues if you develop the ability to weigh risks realistically
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Pessimist jokes sound like they were made by someone who knows you very well. At first glance, the glass is always half empty for you. You have to force yourself to realize it’s half full. But even then, a stubborn inner voice keeps reminding you that it is still half empty.
When things are going great, it starts screaming at you that a setback is about to happen. It’s just that things can’t just go perfectly – that’s not how living life works.
Yes, pessimism is a characteristic of yours. But do not be discouraged, although you are inclined to do just that.
In fact you are of the lesser part of humanity. Research shows that most people are naturally optimistic. Very often irrational optimists – they believe that things will work themselves out. Simply because they can only go wrong. Otherwise, the world would not have survived until now.
Personal development specialists advise to realize this nature of yours – the pessimistic attitude that makes you a member of a relatively smaller human group – and try to take advantage of it.
Pessimism should be valued because it can help you to predict and therefore prevent negative outcomes. You are able to recognize risks early and this would be useful for the team you work for.
It’s just that it has to to develop an additional ability – to realistically weigh the unfavorable odds of success.
Irrational pessimism is just as useless as irrational optimism. People who have learned to deal with either extreme are called realists. They are, however, the smallest human group according to researchers.
The big problem is that just as the optimist tends to believe that things will work themselves out, so does the pessimist likes to overexpose small problems, brooding over non-existent threats and convincing himself that things won’t work out, so there’s no point in making any effort.
This includes even trying to learn to control his pessimistic nature. And the best thing you can do for yourself is to turn your attitude into a weapon to rise in your professional life, turning it to realism every time.
It’s a process, it doesn’t happen overnight.
You’re first admit that you are pessimistic. It’s not easy, there is a stigma that negative people are bad, toxic, losers because they don’t believe in success and fail because of their negative thinking. But get to know yourself and change yourself enough to become useful – to others and to yourself.
By definition, pessimism is a thought bias that manifests itself in the form of repeated negative interpretations and predictions. But just because you predict failure doesn’t always mean you’re wrong.
Evaluate yourself objectively by thinking honestly how often you had negative expectations and what the end results actually were. I.e. whether or not your negative initial attitudes came true.
If they have come true, then you are more of a realist. If they haven’t come true, then your attitude is to overexpose the risks.
In getting to know one can have a relative or friend who knows you very well help you. The way well-intentioned others perceive you and openly share with you what natural dispositions they recognize in you is very helpful in your change. Because pessimists have another trait – they insist that they are right and that their pessimistic expectations have miraculously diverged. Or else the success is temporary, and an even greater catastrophe will strike in its wake.
Then you must turn self-knowledge into a tool and take reasonable action to seal your nature.
You have a negative attitude towards almost everything and you are aware of it. Never react first neither internal nor external. Analyze whether your expectations are reasonable. By trying to be as realistic as possible in your assessments, by harnessing all your professional knowledge and abilities, all your common sense, your assessment will be objective.
As a result, you may dismiss your fears as illusory. You may also find them fully motivated and take action to be prepared for or prevent an adverse development.
This is what will make you valuable – you use your pessimism as something that helps you succeed, to avoid or minimize failure.
Philosophical pessimists defend their attitudes by pointing out that the first part of the saying “prepare for the worst, hope for the best” is more important than the second. “Negative expectations can mobilize you to take action to avoid unwanted outcomes. Pessimistic thoughts are much more practical than hopes. Hopes are much harder to turn into reality,” they comment.
However, you should write down: Never burden others with your negative attitudes. Remember, there are fewer pessimists than optimists. Most of your coworkers, and probably your boss, don’t share your bleak worldview.
No matter how good professionals they are, no matter how realistic they think they are, they probably put more focus on positive interpretations of reality and expectations. They may consider your negative attitudes as laziness (you don’t care, so you say “It won’t happen”), as incompetence (you are unable to cope because of your poor professionalism, and you cover it up with negative predictions of general failure), for distrust (in the strength of the team and the foresight of the boss), for cynicism (everything in the world is bad and you do not believe in victory), etc. unpleasant things.
The most effective approach is to focus on realism and do your best to clothe your negative predictions in data and evidence. Be ironically motivated about the risks and try to point out how they can be avoided or reduced.
After you have defended your point of view, give others the opportunity to present their points of view and try to understand them. Be flexible and evaluate them realistically.
When a pessimist and an optimist work together, they can present a much more accurate description of reality and be much more effective than if they did it separately, management experts say. They advise managers to combine in the teams professionals of both types – with optimistic and pessimistic attitudes, to complement each other.
Furthermore, by trying to get into the mindset of optimists, you can change yourself.
Keep in mind that negativity wears others down a lot. People want to hear and feel optimism even when they themselves have fears and negative expectations. It hurts your colleagues to hear eternal banter, no matter how hard you try to dress it up in realism. You have to learn to manage their impressions, ie. to some extent to cover up your pessimistic nature.
—— And some mimicry ——
Learning to manage impressions of yourself, as experts say, means getting used to masking your negativity and winning the sympathy of others. And it is absolutely certain that you push them away with your pessimism. On the contrary, you will be perceived as “cool” if you are more positive.
Positive attitudes also lead to something else – because of them, people think of you as more competent.
According to research, optimists are the majority of humanity, which means that others will be more favorable if they perceive you as similar to themselves, and not as a “black station”.
You understand why you have to mask your pessimistic attitudes. It is responsible to analyze them, warn about risks when it comes to the team’s official tasks. But refrain from giving free rein to your negative moods and expectations on other issues – for example, social and political.
The outward projection of calm and stable optimism, combined with an inner sense of realism and preparedness for future threats and dangers, is not a bad approach to managing your reputation and for career success, even if you are a pessimist by nature, experts assure.
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