Pessimist and a Leader

I heard an interesting saying today which relates to my struggles with showing leadership.

“Be neither a pessimist nor an optimist, but a leader. A pessimist complaints about what is, an optimist expects the adverse conditions to improve, but a leader takes action to adjust and ensure that they’re ready to cope with whatever may be.”

This is an interesting perspective to me, since I have always considered myself something of a pessimist. I have also never thought about how I react to life’s challenges as a reflection of whether not I have leadership capabilities. I have always looked at leadership as being able to relate to, motivate and to some degree control people. I am something of a push over, so I have always believed that to have worked against me.

I am now starting to wonder if my perspective on that was not entirely accurate. If that perhaps being a leader has not only to do with how I relate to people, but also being the person who doesn’t think dooms day is going to happen and being the person with a plan regardless of what happens.

I think I need to work on finding solutions rather than focusing my energy on the negative.

-emma