The Magnitude of Optimism

Years ago I read a hardback called Learned Optimism authored by Martin E.P. Seligman. The next citation really opened my eyes to what it takes to be victorious in the insurance profession.
“Life insurance agents, as a bunch, tend to be more optimistic than people from any walk of life we have ever tested: car salesmen, commodity traders who scream all day long in the pits, West Point plebes, managers of Arby’s restaurants, the candidates for the office of President of the United States during this century, major-league baseball stars, or world-class swimmers.”
Learned Optimism is the idea that a talent with delight, akin to any other, could be refined. This is in direct contrast to “learned helplessness.” Learning optimism is done by consciously challenging self talk if it involves a pessimistic incident, e.g. a personal letdown, that lastingly influences all regions of the person’s life.
Altering the damaging things you verbalize to yourself while you live through the disappointments that life dishes to most of us is an focal preception of Learned Optimism. Through observing the single destructive pattern of cynicism, with its insidious, crippling consequences, we can learn to reject its tempting song, however deeply seated in the brain or habit it may be. We can learn to pick optimism, as well as take note of pessimism when it is necessary.
2 Edges Of Optimism
1. Optimistic individuals produce more, especially under pressure.
Talent alone isn't enough.
2. Tough brightness is an understandable asset in “high defeat” in addition to “high stress” careers that need initiative, persistence and daring  imagination. If we are to be managers that are well prepared to adopt this Group and the people it serves into the longer term, I advise we develop a healthy and adaptable brightness. The process will allow ourselves and others to measure fuller, richer lives.
As you go on with your journey, remember these words belonging to the German Lutheran pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
“The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.”