Both great leaders and fake news plant ideas in people’s heads. Consider how this rarely discussed skill can help you achieve your leadership goals.

Would you like to write an article for the Law Practice Today (LPT), the monthly digital publication of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Division? LPT also goes out to the entire ABA membership through an email newsletter. 

Everyone has heard that optimism reduces stress, increases resilience, boosts productivity, and enhances happiness. Therefore, it is very common for people to see optimism as good and pessimism as bad.  However, the reality is far more complex. It is important to understand the subtleties because you or someone you know could inadvertently be undermining the likelihood of achieving goals through the “wrong” form of positive thinking.

For those who are interested, here are a few pictures from my wedding.

By the end of January, Jill was pretty frustrated.  Like most of us, she had started the new year with high hopes and big plans, but by February things had not gone as intended and she ended up feeling demoralized. See how Jill went from feeling like January was a loss to recognizing how much she had achieved and rekindling her motivation and enthusiasm for achieving her goals.