Relentless Optimism by Darrin Donnelly

  • Talent and hard work will get you in the door, but it’s your mindset–your attitude–that will take you to the top.

  • Success follows optimism, it’s not the other way around. A positive attitude delivers positive outcomes in everything.

  • Nothing is more important than what you feed your mind and the best way to feed your mind is with the books you read.

  • Success begins in your mind, but failure does too. Optimism is self-fulfilling, but so is pessimism. You have to decide how you’re going to think. The choice is yours and you have to own the outcome.

  • Failure and negative events are a part of your life. There’s nothing you can do to protect yourself from encountering adversity. Anybody who thinks they can is delusional and only setting themselves up for a lifetime of disappointment.

  • Optimism won’t prevent negative events from happening; optimism will ensure that you respond to those negative events in the most beneficial way possible–a way that leads to positive outcomes. Your mindset determines how you respond to the negative events that will inevitably happen to us all.

  • You can respond with pessimism or you can respond with optimism. Those who respond with pessimism–most people–will bring about more problems and, ultimately, negative outcomes. Those who respond with optimism will turn the negative situation around and ensure a positive outcome in the long run.

  • In 1928, Ty Cobb retired with MLB history’s highest career batting average, .366. Yet, he failed more than 63% of the time.

  • The people who succeed aren't the ones who avoid failure; they’re the ones who learn how to respond to failure with optimism.

  • Optimists remind themselves that every negative event is a LIE.

-L=Limited: Optimists see the negative event as temporary and limited to a single moment.

-I=Isolated: Optimists see the negative event as specific to that one particular area.

-E=External: Optimists remind themselves that people and things outside of their control contributed to the negative event.

  • Whether you view a negative event as a pessimist and allow it to fester and make things worse or whether you view it as an optimist and define it as a LIE that will not lead to further damage is completely up to you. You have the power.