Shyam Barr

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PREFACE

This blog discusses topics that exist between the fields cognitive psychology and leadership, teaching and learning. Although I make connections between research and personal experience (my attempt at bridging the age-old ‘theory-practice’ gap), I write for a general audience. It is as Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi stated in the preface of his book FLOW:

“To take this step is somewhat dangerous, because as soon as one strays from the stylised constraints of academic prose, it is easy to become careless or overly enthusiastic about such a topic” (p. xi)

To avoid carelessness, I will endeavour to include references to journal articles, books and alike (as commonly expected in academic writing), but not at the expense of accessibility and ease of reading. This will be a delicate balance and one I will endeavour to achieve.

To end, I chose the word ‘discusses’ in the first sentence of this preface, to highlight that although the blog articles themselves are very much a dialogue between myself and what I read, I encourage you to share your comments and questions, so that we may start a more authentic discussion. 

 
 

Strategies to protect your optimism (and how to teach students to be more optimistic)

  • What makes you optimistic?

  • Do you ever find yourself surrounded by pessimistic views?

  • Interested in knowing how to enhance or protect your optimism?

Recently, I was having a drink with some work friends and chatting about whether a freelance/consultant mindset works in a university. The conversation erred on the side of pessimism and I perceived little to no hope that the two mindsets could work together. The conversation got me feeling down. However, as an effective self-regulator, I quickly sought help via friends on Twitter (see image below).

After posting that comment on Twitter, I was stoked to see that Victor Perton, Director of the Centre for Optimism promptly responded to my query “How do you protect your optimism when confronted by pessimistic views of others?”. He not only responded to my tweet, but called me later that day and shared with me numerous strategies to help protect one’s optimism - THANK YOU VICTOR FOR YOUR GENEROSITY, KINDNESS AND INFECTIOUS OPTIMISM. I’ll do my best to recap some of our conversation and Victor’s suggested strategies below:

1. Surround yourself with optimists

In any organisation (or any aspect of life), we are surrounded by a range of different people, all adopting different perspectives and approaches to life. It is important to note that those who surround us influence our own thinking and behaviour (Christakis & Fowler, 2011), so the trick is to be selective with who you surround yourself with. In the context of optimism, Victor suggested surrounding oneself with optimists. In other words, select those in the organisation who are also optimists and build a group of self-sustaining optimists.

Expert tip: Victor suggested that in his group of self-sustaining optimists, they regularly grab coffees or meals together to help support each other to protect their optimism.

2. Write the 3 best things that happened each day

Another strategy to protect your optimism is to write down the 3 best things that happened to you during the day. While similar to a gratitude journal, the exercise of writing down the 3 best things that happen during the day is a strategy to oppose the brain’s negativity bias (the mind’s natural tendency to focus on the negative). It’s a way of rewiring your mind to focus on the positive. The strategy itself is grounded in Positive Psychology. Check out a brief video explanation about this exercise from Dr. Martin Seligman (The founder of Positive Psychology) here.

Expert tip: Victor suggested writing this down in the evening and then reading it again first thing the next morning!

In the past I have written a gratitude journal, but since speaking with Victor, I am trialling this strategy. Based on my personal experience, I’ve found the strategy to be highly effective in focusing on the beautiful things that happen in daily life.

3. Change how you greet people

Take a moment to think about how you regularly greet people. Does it go something like this - “Hi, how are you?” with the typical response being “fine thanks”. In essence, the greeting and response tells one very little about how someone actually is. Victor’s advice is to change the way you greet people, and to consider including the question “what’s been the best thing that has happened for you today?”. If you’re like me, there is still a level of comfort in the empty niceties at the beginning, so I’m currently opting for a hybrid version:

“Hey hey, how’s your day going?”

“Good thanks”

“If you don’t mind me asking… what’s the best thing that has happened for you this morning/day/evening?

[Then… wait eagerly for the response]

Remember, optimism can be infectious… so help spread it! This strategy is something I have used with my students at the beginning of my workshops/lessons. I’ll talk about this in the Implication for the Classroom section further on.

4. Consider the question - what makes you optimistic?

In my phone conversation Victor mentioned that he had shifted from asking people “how they become/stay optimistic” to “what makes you optimistic?”. He indicated this slight change in language was a game-changer. Beliefs influence behaviour so it is important to think about the beliefs you hold about the world and why that makes you optimistic. A number of years ago, Victor asked me what made me optimistic. Following our recent phone conversation, he reposted it - refer below:

Implications for the classroom

  • Do you sometimes feel like your students are focussed on a negative outcome?

  • Feel like they would benefit from focussing on the positive aspects of their learning?

Self-regulated learning can be conceptualised as occurring over three phases: Forethought, Performance and Self-Reflection. It is in the forethought phase where one considers a task, sets goals and acknowledges their self-efficacy . Optimism, arguably, plays an important role in the Forethought phase as it can influence the types of goals that a student sets. Hence, it is important that we also develop students’ strategies to enhance or even protect their own optimism.

Below are some examples of how I would approach this in the classroom.

  1. Get students to write down the best thing that has happened to them in a period of time. For example, I recently taught a 2-hour online class and I started the class by asking all students to write in the chat bar their response to the question - “What is the best thing that has happened to you this morning?”. Following a very brief sharing of responses, I explicitly acknowledged the importance of considering this question, shared my own practice of writing down the 3 best things that happen to me each day and encouraged students to do the same.

  2. Engage students in a conversation about the term optimism and what makes them optimistic. I think this conversation is particularly useful leading into an assessment task where students’ self-doubt tends to plague them. Then, I would explicitly teach students the ‘self-talk’ strategies that they can use to help refocus on the positive when the brain’s negativity bias kicks in.

  3. Talk to students about the importance of their choices, particularly who they surround themselves with in class but also outside. When teaching a middle-school class (e.g., Year 7), I would often speak to students prior to them entering the classroom. During that time, I would remind them of the influence those who surround them have on their thinking and behaviours, and I would ask them to think carefully about their choices as they choose where they sit. This form of explicit prompting empowers students to practice making choices about their environment that will support their learning. In other words, it is a method to support self-regulated learning!

Finally, if you’re looking for more ways to foster your optimism, then consider connecting with Victor Perton or joining the Centre for Optimism.

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