Leadership and Performance Tip: Optimism Is Key

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

The first time I learned this leadership and performance tip of the true value of optimism was after I had a pivotal conversation with my mother about a year after graduating from high school.

On the day of my high school graduation, I realized that I screwed up big time and did not maximize my potential in school at all. Not even close and because of this I thought it was too late to change.

Instead of making the decision to change, improve my leadership and performance and do some things differently, I chose to ignore the tough lesson I had learned. I started partying with my friends, hanging out all night, and focused on having fun.

I didn’t think about college, finding a career, what my future looked like, trying to fix the mess I got myself into, or improving my leadership and performance.

I was stuck in this state of mind for about a year before it started to get old and reality hit me. One night my car broke down after a party and I barely made it home. My car was out of commission permanently and if I wanted to go out I would have to walk. Out of all the friends I was hanging out with, I was the only one with a car. I was frustrated and stressed out more about my car and what it might cost to fix it more than anything.

I thought hard that night and didn’t sleep much. I was lost and needed some guidance. There were only two people that I was comfortable talking to when I get into this kind of mindset. One was my grandmother who had passed away many years prior and the other was my mother. I remember walking down the stairs the next morning with the mission of getting guidance from my mother.

It was just her and I in the kitchen during our entire conversation. I told her what had happened the night before and the things I was thinking about throughout the night. I let it all out! I even wanted to cry but did not while she just listened. She could have sat there and said all kinds of things like “I told you so”, “you’re so hard headed”, “I tried to tell you that”, etc. but instead she waited for me to finish before she spoke.

She was telling me how I could get my life on track if I really wanted to. She said that the past is the past and now I need to get on track. She told me to start with going to college. I said “okay” and then I asked if she was going to pay for it. She said “HECK NO” without even thinking about or having any kind of hesitation.

Then I said “Well how am I suppose to be able to go to college?” and she told me Community College. She began to tell me how I could take as many or as little classes as I would like to take. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do anymore as far as a career. She told me to just take classes until I figured it out.

My whole mindset shifted after that conversation and I finally got it and discovered how to tap into my leadership and performance capabilities.

Well, you’re probably wondering, what I got. One, I discovered that my life was screwed up because I screwed it up. Two, if I wanted to create a life where I was successful, I was the only one that could do it. Three, I’m going to start now and only do the things in my life that feel like the right thing to do.

So I started to change everything starting that day by tapping into my personal and leadership and performance skills. I stopped hanging out with my friends, I stopped partying, I stopped taking phone calls from friends, and started focusing on me and my future. I felt the best feeling I have ever felt in a long time. I even felt better than the best times I had with my friends partying. I know that sounds weird right?

I was officially optimistic and I knew that everything was going to work out for the better. I knew that I was going to become successful. It was DONE! I took as many hours as I possibly could at my current job. I didn’t have a car now so sometimes I walked 4-5 miles to work and sometimes I took the bus. It all depended on my work schedule. I never ever took a cab because I knew it would eat into my take home pay too much.

Walking was FREE and the bus was 75 cents. You can’t beat that with a baseball bat. I saved for weeks until I had enough to get another car. Seven hundred dollars later I found a good dependable car to purchase and retired from walking. I got a job at McDonalds to help bring in even more money and I was now able to afford some classes at community college and I had transportation.

Then one day my mom came in my room to let me know that IBM was hiring for temporary full-time shifts on overnights. I applied and got hired on the spot. I quit McDonalds and kept everything else. My income increased significantly. I was hoping to become permanent full-time but I couldn’t count on it.

One day I realized the potential at the part-time job I was working with in the area of career opportunities. There was an opportunity to make even more money and make more money by working one full-time job. I can go on and on about the great things that started to happen in my life once I became optimistic and and tapped into my leadership and performance potential.

The rest of my career is history and I started making more money than I ever dreamed possible for me. I’m not done yet and I would still say that I’m just getting started.

The leadership and performance tip of being optimistic is a major key to your success! Change your attitude and you can change your life!