Eagles,
Simon Sinek, a writer, and presenter on leadership, spoke at a conference on being an optimist and maintaining an optimist outlook. He makes a distinction between blind positivity and optimism. He warns that some leaders think they must always be positive, "Everything is fine! Everything is good," to keep their teams feeling safe, motivated, and inspired. He notes that, in reality, when we are going through stress and a leader states that everything is fine, we tend to think that the reason that things are going wrong is our fault. The blind optimist approach can backfire by creating more stress than hope.
Optimism is the undying belief that the future is bright. Sinek states that, unlike blind positivity, optimism is not naive. It is very realistic.
As optimists, we know that we are in a dark tunnel and experiencing hard times. We may not know how long we will be here or how far away the light at the end of the tunnel is, but we know that if we work together, we will come out of it better than we went in.
It is okay to acknowledge hard times and our struggle with them. For our students, helping them to contextualize inevitable hard times and setting an example for how to push through is essential to their development. Building resiliency by allowing our students to recognize and stand firm against adversity while also focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel would make for a prepared student indeed.
As the end of the year approaches, I hope we can all reflect on a brighter future we can share regardless of the circumstances.
Happy Holidays Eagles,
Mr. De La Garza
