An interesting and paradoxical aspect of performance is that performance will result from trust in the ability to perform.

Reviewing my own experience, I can see how being positive about my ability to perform shifts the circumstances of my experience, making it easier to perform. Going out on the golf course always reminds me of that experience.

Waiting to feel good or to have good results to perform is rarely as effective. And yet, it’s interesting how a good shot sometimes is what one hopes for. But it doesn’t enable performance. What a good event does is assist in restoring one’s calm and resetting one’s memory toward the possibility of performing well. It interrupts the cycle of doubt that has established itself.

There is no reason that one’s need to restore one’s calm nor one’s desire to stop the cycle of doubt defines our performance. However, they’ll do it if we let it happen.

These are the moments in which optimism is called upon. But these moments can also remind us of all the other moments in which optimism wasn’t called upon visibly when optimism was present.

When doubt steps in it may seem as if optimism is called upon and only its absence can be noted. Sometimes an effort will be made to force it. We all know these situations in which someone describes an experience explaining how everything will be great in the future. Some allow for hope to establish itself, whereas things don’t ring true with others. It then seems that thee person’s hope has become the foundation of his optimism.

Optimism can’t be forced. It can only be trained and experienced.

While experiencing one’s or other people’s optimism is a direct experience, training optimism is less direct. It requires one to become aware of optimism when it is there and to create a memory of this experience.

Optimism is present whenever we experience good moments. Making us aware of these good experiences is a way to invest in optimism. Good in this setting doesn’t mean the perfect experience or a great performance. The “good” to make oneself aware of also contains the multitude of good moments happening during the day. May they be the sun that shines, someone smiling kindly or greeting you unexpectedly. The more we become aware of such details, the less important it becomes to wait for something good to happen. It is there and we know it. Good in such a setting also is our ability to notice that something that seems negative isn’t necessarily a cause leading to more bad things happening. Training optimism then means using the instances in which, however small or large obstacles appear. The work becomes to learn to accept the obstacle, to stop focusing on it, and to notice how we can overcome it or, in retrospect, how we’ve been able to react to such obstacles.

Investing in optimism means taking the time to notice its presence when things are running more or less smoothly. It’s too late, at least for a given situation, to train one’s optimism when it isn’t there.