In the mid 1980’s Met Life Insurance hired a man by the name of Dr. Martin Seligman to help them improve their hiring and recruiting processes. At the time Met Life was spending an enormous amount of money on training new agents only to experience a high rate of turnover (one in two quit within the first year). Dr. Seligman is a psychologist who studies optimism and positive psychology. He created an optimism screening test and followed a group of Met Life new hires (approximately 15,000 agents) over a one year period. The results were amazing. As it turns out the agents that tested relatively high in optimism drastically outsold their pessimistic counterparts by as much as 21% in the first year and by 57% the following year. What’s even more interesting is that that the top 10% of the optimists (with the highest optimism scores) sold 88% more insurance than those that ranked in the most pessimistic 10%.

In a 1995 study, Dr. Seligman went on to compare optimism scores to performance of salespeople across a plethora of industries, including insurance, office products, real estate, banking, and car sales. Yup...you guessed it. The results were the same. Across all studies optimists out sold and out earned pessimists by 20 to 40 percent.

“The belief that the future will be much better than the past and present is known as the optimism bias. It abides in every race, religion and socioeconomic bracket…You might expect optimism to erode under the tide of news about the violent conflicts, high unemployment, tornadoes and floods and all the threats that shape human life…But private optimism, about our personal future, remains incredibly resilient…To make progress, we need to be able to imagine alternative realities – better ones – and we need to believe that we can achieve them. Such faith helps motivate us to pursue our goals. Optimists in general work longer hours and tend to earn more.” Tali Sharot June 6, 2011 issue of TIME Magazine “The Science of Optimism.”

Leading academic research suggests that we should not be surprised by the link between optimism and success. According to the research of Adrian Furnham, Professor of Psychology at University College London, “Happy (optimistic) people are more successful at work. Compared with unhappy people, but matched on other criteria such as education, experience, skills, we find that happier people get better jobs; have happier people working for them, show better job performance and make more money. These findings occur across different jobs and in different countries, from German businessmen to Malaysian farmers.”(1)

The same holds true if you are an optimistic job seeker. A new study says that you must be optimistic about getting it, or you won't have a chance. That's the conclusion of researchers at Duke and Yale universities. The research shows that people who have an optimistic outlook on life will have better career prospects than those with a pessimistic outlook. It also concluded that optimists spend less time and effort seeking jobs and receive offers much quicker. The study went on to say that optimists are also more likely to be promoted in the first two years on the job. That equates to more dollars to the bottom line! The study of 232 MBA students was conducted by Ron Kaniel and David T. Robinson of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, in collaboration with Cade Massey of the Yale School of Management.

Optimists intrinsically expect to experience another fantastic day, a productive meeting, that promotion or a harmonious family life and quite astonishingly...they usually get it. Optimist expect to win and rely on faith because, deep down, they understand that all energy flows from that fount.

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle. Darkness befalls us all. There is simply no escaping that truth but rather than dwell in that dark place light your candle of faith, hold fast to it and let that light lead you home.” ― Jason Versey , A Walk with Prudence

It is a truly amazing phenomenon, the results of our thoughts are radically linked to the outcomes of our lives. What we often think about...we often bring about. What our minds obsess about our bodies and surroundings seemingly grant it to us.(good or ill)

Pessimist have the expectancy that they're going to have a bad day, perhaps a boring evening, or will receive bad service while out to dinner or in some cases anticipate poor health or that they are going to lose their job, unfortunately they typically expect these circumstances and as a result...they often do.

This means that what man images, sooner or later externalizes in his affairs, I know of a man who feared a certain disease. It was a very rare disease and difficult to get, but he pictured it continually and read about it until it manifested in his body, and he died, the victim of distorted imagination. -Florence Scovel Shinn

Mental obsessions (good or ill) often have physical manifestations. We become what we fear, we get what we suspect, we become what we expect to be. Self-fulling prophesy is a powerful force of energy. So what do we expect for ourselves? Well friends, we should expect the very best that life has to offer. No matter what curves life throws us...We should expect more money, expect better employment opportunities, good health, warm loving relationships with family and friends as well as success, contentment and peace. So how can we do this? Luckily the experts say that if anyone struggles with being optimistic...that's ok because it can be a learned behavior. Learned optimism is the idea (in positive psychology) that a talent for joy, like any other, can be cultivated. It is contrasted with learned helplessness. Learning optimism is done by consciously challenging any negative self talk. Jennifer Robison is a Senior Editor of the Gallup Business Journal and she says this;

Here are some ways we can acquire Optimism:

1. Start looking at problems as Opportunities. We can begin to train ourselves to be optimists by starting to find the silver lining in every problem that pops up. When we experience a problem or disappointment in life we should start to see it, for what it truly is...an opportunity. Use it as a fuse to ignite a change within you by attacking the issue with a positive outcome in mind. Pushing through problems is a valuable opportunity for personal growth. When trouble comes your way remember this...friction is necessary. Ease of life leads to complacency and the atrophy of the human will and spirit. Within our struggles lives our strength, within our trials lives our triumphs. Friction creates a platform for change, generates heat and or fervor and creates a motivational charge that gives us an opportunity to be better. A gem cannot be polished without friction and so neither a person without hardships. Friction within and friction without sharpens our senses and revives our internal resolutions. Friction is uncomfortable, hardships are distressing but both are necessary. We cannot light a match without friction nor can we hone steal. Uncomfortable as it may be, our adversity ultimately lights a fire and sharpens our very will to flourish. Today, let us not be discouraged, let us not be bitter in our suffering rather let us be encouraged as we look to our trials as a medium that will eventually make us better.
   
2. Worry Less...Stay Relaxed.There’s very little that worrying can do to help our situations. Worrying is like running on a treadmill…it gives us an opportunity to sweat but gets us absolutely nowhere. Worrying skews our reality, suppresses the immune system, promotes coronary disease, and plagues us with digestive problems. It’s clear…when the soul is heavy the body feels the weight. Do yourself a favor. Lighten up. Take a deep breath, clear your mind and focus your energy on the things you can change rather than on the things you can’t. "Worry is the enemy of optimism and personal progress." ~ Jason Versey (Go ahead... tweet that!) Stay relaxed and friendly no matter how much pressure you might be feeling.
   
3. Get excited about life. Realize that nothing great or worthwhile is ever achieved without optimism, passion and love. Not professionally or personally. We will not find greatness in our jobs, in our marriages, our children, in our friendships, nor in our spiritual growth without these three key elements. It's been researched that 25% of us will pass away in our sleep. So think of seeing yet another sunrise as a second chance. Be appreciative. Waking with a true appreciation for life should set the tone for the rest of our day. Don't waste it. Do what you didn't do yesterday. Forgive someone, finish that project, close that deal or simply reach out to a friend and do it with optimism, passion and love. Psalms 118:24 says..."This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad int it."
4. 
   Start to think carefully about the things you tell yourself. We must acknowledge that we are the architects of our perceptions and realities. Without this understanding, we become a victim to the things that happen around us. The way we see our lives shapes our lives. We all have our internal way of defining life which to a large degree determines our destiny. How we perceive ourselves really matters. Our self-perspective has unlimited power that can breed either success or failure. If we constantly think and believe that we're not good enough, capable enough, smart enough, beautiful enough or talented enough to achieve in life what is rightfully ours, then sadly, we never will be. What we think of ourselves shapes the very essence of what we will become.

“ Plant seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses.” ~Norman Vincent Peale

Optimism is the key to good health and happiness. It gives us the greatest and most favorable conditions and inclinations to combat every problem we face and to achieve every goal we set. Regardless of what the studies and research says about how being more optimistic will help us earn more money. The truth is, at the end of the day, no one can really place a value on having a positive mental attitude. That wealth...is far too great to measure.

Many positive blessings to you and yours.- Jason Versey

In this world, the optimists have it, not because they are always right but because they are positive and that is the way of achievement, correction, improvement and success. (With) educated eyes-open optimism pays; pessimism can only offer the empty consolation of sometimes being right." ~David S. Landes The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

Take Dr. Norman Seligman's Optimism Test- CLICK HERE

Resources: Photo: Dr. Norman Seligman provided by www.posneuroscience.org

1. Adrian Furnham, The Sunday Times , 13 November 2011https://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/Appointments/article819581.ec

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