Optimism.

Optimism is a muscle that can be grown and developed.

For us, there are two big pieces/keys:

1. Foundation in gratitude and Stoicism.

We studied the principles of "The Original Position" by John Rawls and received reminders from family and friends that we're just so lucky to be living in the time and place that we are and surrounded by the support and tools we need for success. The original position explores the fact that if we were removed from our world and given the chance to change how the rules worked, we'd make the world very different if we knew that we could be born back into any place, time, and body. To know that we might not have the same fortune we were born into, we would design a much more equitable world to make sure we'd still have a chance at a happy life when we returned. With all this in mind, we know that we got such a beneficial and fortunate head start.

Then, we studied stoicism - including Ryan Holiday's books and "A Guide to the Good Life - the Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by William Braxton Irvine. Through the basic exercises of Stoicism, we learn to be grateful for current circumstances but unattached to them. To work to progress in life without wanting for more. To know that everything we have is "on loan" from fortune and will one day be returned. To imagine great difficulties in life and remember how sweet life is without those difficulties. To find pleasure in the simplest things in the present moment.

Building up these mindsets over time sets up our foundation for optimism.

If we consider that happiness = reality minus expectations, or that happiness = what you have divided by what you want, then being so grateful for what we already have brings happiness. If we're happy with what we already have, it's easier to be optimistic about the future. Especially if we don't attach our happiness to some other "optimal" state.

2. Optimal situations can be manifested

To be optimistic is to (gently) expect that good things will happen.

A few concepts here:

• Optimism is self-fulfilling. One who believes bad things will happen is more likely to come upon them. Optimists will reflect their optimism into the world and more opportunities will find them. They'll be more likely to build surface area for luck to land on.

• The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. We can only manifest a future that we can truly believe can happen, and thus our imagination represents the boundaries of our opportunity. Optimists have bigger boundaries for success.

• Optimism is in the eye of the beholder. An optimist who doesn't get what they wanted is more likely to find the positive in the negative result than a pessimist is. Consider how the pessimist will say "I knew it would fail" and the optimist might say "what good came of this?" or "maybe if we aren't where we wanted to be, it's not over yet."

These ideas point to the self-reflexive nature of optimism.

Whether we think we can, or think we can't ... either way we're right.