I truly feel like I am a moderate in  all facets of life. If you ask me, I am most likely to say I am a realist. I have a couple of friends who are optimists and I admire how they seem so effortlessly are positive and hopeful. I can get to their position, but it requires a bit of effort.glass half full

I was recently listening to a Simon Sinek podcast and l learned the concept of strategic optimism and defensive pessimism. Strategic optimism is setting the bar high, and having the expectation that you will live into that expectation. “I am going to ace that test!” In comparison defensive pessimism sets low expectations and rehearses various negative situations.

Externally I am a strategic optimist. I absolutely believe my friends, or my family are going to knock their gig out of the park. But full disclosure – internally I am a catastrophizer and a planner to the core. I think through all the worst-case scenarios and plan out responses – plan A, Plan D, plan F. I do this – or I tell myself I do this to be prepared for the worst, and anything better then becomes a win. I guess this makes me a hard-core defensive pessimist.