Jenny and Erin

Do you ever find yourself wondering about the people who are always pointing out the good in every situation? The people who don’t seem to get especially worried when things go wrong? Sometimes you may feel like tearing off their rose colored glasses, and yet other times you wish you had a pair of your own.

Optimists often get a bad wrap – I’ve heard them described as “Pollyanna”, simple or failing to understand the complexity of a problem. Like every stereotype there may be some truth to these statements, but it certainly isn’t the whole picture.

In my life I’ve seen two types of optimists. Most of us are familiar with the first type, those people that you can peg as an optimist from the moment you meet; always positive, always smiling and rarely complaining. This optimism may be a social face, a tool to talk themselves out of negative head space or simply an act to placate others. Regardless of the why, we all know them, maybe it’s even you. It’s the other type of optimism that intrigues me.

The second type of optimist isn’t as immediately apparent. In fact, they are easy to miss. You can be looking right at them and not see it. Trust me, I’ve been there. At first onset this optimist is usually seen as a pain in the ass. Yes, they may be pleasant, but get stuck working with them, socially or professionally, and their questions never end! Your plans are questioned, your time lines challenged and your patience frayed. However these feelings fade, as midway through the project you realize their questions held an active interest in what you were saying (yep, they were really listening), they have a wicked sense of humor and most amazingly, they have taken all of the information, from you and others, and used it to generate a real plan.

Their brand of optimism is based in knowledge and confidence, not only in themselves, but also in you. By the time the hard work begins they are working from a sense of confidence grounded in preparation. Their optimism isn’t pie-in-the-sky, it comes from knowledge. When they are done questioning, preparing and planning they know that you are capable of the difficulties you’ll encounter. When you’re hit with something unforeseen that rattles everyone to the core, they are the calm voice telling you that you are capable. They have been paying attention and remind you of all the other roadblocks you have overcome, and insist you’ll find your way around this one too.

And honestly, you find yourself believing them. Sure enough, soon you have found a way around the barrier. The quiet optimist has realized the power of knowledge gathering, preparation and planning. They have learned how their words and actions can affect others, and are therefore able to achieve results that would be impossible for most of us.

Life is better with them around. You no longer find yourself mildly annoyed with all of their questions, you find silent amusement at the frustrated faces of the “newbie’s”. You feel a sense of awe at how much thought and consideration the quiet optimist puts into their work. And you realize just how much nicer the world is with them around. Given enough time you might even decide to try on your own pair of “rose-colored glasses”.

This entry was posted in Miscellaneous on Friday, May 4th, 2007 by Jenny. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.