Radical Optimism
Optimism is a skill, not a personality.
The disciplined, realistic kind that actually gets things done. Not toxic positivity. Not wishful thinking. And not the clever cynicism that never builds anything.
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The third way
Most books on optimism fall into one of two traps. They either tell you to think positive and manifest your way to success, which the evidence quietly demolishes, or they're so busy being rigorous and gloomy that they forget to leave you anywhere to stand.
This one is different. It treats optimism as the third way: an honest look at how things really are, a disciplined belief they can get better, and the practical action to close the gap between the two.
I'm no natural at it, for the record. Put me in a room of sunny optimists and I'm the one pointing at the risks. I think critically, not negatively, and there's a real difference between the two. This is the book I need to read as much as anyone does.
The four lenses
Everything runs through four questions:
Believe — what you think is actually possible. This is where optimism turns out to be learnable rather than a fixed trait.
See — what you choose to notice, and what you amplify or quietly ignore.
Expect — what you expect of yourself and other people, and the uncomfortable way that becomes self-fulfilling.
Do — turning belief into action, because optimism without action is just a nice attitude.
Four levers. Each one learnable. Each one scales from you, to your team, to your whole organisation.
Ways in
The book is where the whole argument lives, and where you can help shape it before it's finished. The tools are free, quick, and pulled straight from it, so start with Spanner or Planner. And the podcast is where I talk it all through with people cleverer than me.
[→ The Book] [→ Tools] [→ The Podcast]
Where to start reading
The writing is where these ideas develop in the open, and it comes at them from three heights. One to try from each:
Leading yourself. "A tragic waste of hope": what it costs to decide in advance that nothing will change.
Leading a team. "A truly caring workplace watches the waves": noticing what's happening to people before it's a crisis.
Leading an organisation. "Yeah but… how can we invest when there's no money": the objection that sounds like realism and works like a full stop.
[→ All the optimism writing] — links to /blog/tag/realistic-optimism
Start with the free tool, and help write the book
Share your email and I'll send you Spanner or Planner, the tool for working out where your energy is actually worth spending. You'll also get drafts before anyone else, and a vote on which tools earn their place in the final book. You won't just read this book when it's done. You'll have helped build it.
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