♬  Take this silver lining
Keep it in your own sweet head
Shine it when the night is burning red
Shine it in the twilight
Shine it on the cold cold ground
Shine it till these walls come
Tumbling down…♬

Lyrics, music and recorded by David Gray.

Whiskey Jack

This is another “Leadership Moments” guest post by Beth Flynn of the Ohio Leadership Center.

Your own personal history of overcoming obstacles and taking advantage of the lessons learned is one short chapter in a continuing human story.  Nurture your life’s story with pride.  As an optimist, you, too, can persevere in reframing difficulties and obstacles into new opportunities by taking advantage of Norman Vincent Peale’s advice: “Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities – always see them, for they’re always there.”

Don’t run from hardships; face them!  Cultivate positive beliefs and thoughts about what you are capable of doing.  Nurture an expectation of success in overcoming what life throws in your path – through good thinking and applied effort.  Even in the tough times, look for silver linings (Paulson, p.100).

From: Paulson, T. L. (2010).  The optimism advantage: 50 truths to transform your attitudes and actions into results.  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

The Optimism Advantage is available from the OSU Leadership Center.  Click here to borrow this resource or any other resource. Once you are on their website, click on the Spectrum http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu