Use Positive Optimism to Expand Your Career Opportunities

Optimism attracts people and those who can gather together the greatest amount of people enhance their social influence. Those who are in business can enhance their social networks and attract more people to their cause simply through being more positive about life. Positive contacts not only help build your social networks but also enhance future career opportunities.

Positive impressions helps others to feel good about themselves and their prospects. If people are willing to spend millions on cosmetic products, tickets for sports games, branded clothing, and the other luxuries of life to feel good they will also be attracted to a positive person who helps them feel this way. For the low price a few moments of time they can walk away with positive impressions for a while without experiencing buyers remorse.

It is important to be a rational optimist to ensure you maintain your credibility. Optimism should be based on understanding challenges as they actually are but focusing on those solutions which are most likely to produce a positive outcome. People will follow an optimistic person that can see the challenges people face but enlightens them to stronger paths.

Optimism helps people feel as though they can master challenges in work, family, or daily living. People love to feel as though they are strong enough to master their environment. When someone is optimistic they are able to attract others to them precisely because people want to feel more confident about their prospects. Positive feelings encourages people to come back again and again for many years.

People who are positive are also more approachable than those with negative dispositions. You may remember a time when you were attracted to a person who had a positive disposition. When someone is smiling and jolly others feel it is easy to approach that person. Their body language tells others "come talk to me I am a friendly and open person".  It doesn't take long before someone takes notice and make steps to meet you.

The impression a person leaves after leaving someone is just as important for attraction them as the initial contact. Positive and optimistic people leave a positive impression on people that influences how they remember the experience. Happy memories lead to word-of-mouth introductions through character references and future opportunities to connect to their social networks.

Birds of a feather flock together. Both optimism and pessimism are contagious. If people are negative about their lives and others around them it becomes likely that negativity will begin to influence their way of thinking. Surrounding yourself with positive people will attract additional positive people and protect you from negative thinking.

Optimism is a way of looking at the world and it has a euphoric effect on the people you meet. They are naturally attracted to people who help them feel good and enjoy the positive side of life. Creating positive impressions among people also helps you develop your personal and career networks in a way that leads to additional opportunities in the future. Use the power of positive optimism to expand your career influence and raise the quality of your life through the power of your mind is a skill learned over time.

You may be interested in a CNN article on how Optimism improves your cardiovascular health.

Life Satisfaction as a Predictor of Optimism in Hotel and Tourism Students

It is hard to be motivated if you are not optimistic about life. The greatest asset students have is their optimism and the desire to create the lives they seek. In college optimism keeps students focused and working on their long-term goals which are often broken down into little steps of studying and making choices over their lives. Research helps shed some light on how optimism and life satisfaction work together to create higher levels positive outlook in hotel and tourism education.

Employee’s perceptions are an integral part of developing their approaches to the work environment and their personal lives. Perception leads to behavioral rituals employees use to navigate their environment (Kagitcibasi, 1992). The rituals will run throughout their working lifetimes unless they are questioned or adjusted by important new self-understandings.  

When employee viewpoints are optimistic by nature they have the benefit of developing stronger rituals that help them achieve their goals. When a person has an optimistic outlook, they can develop better strategies for perception, problem-solving, interpretation, decision-making and even relationships with other employees (Oner-Koruklu, 2010).  It is these positive self-images and optimistic outlooks that help employees and organizations become more productive.

Life satisfaction comes when a person believes they can influence their environment and have positive beliefs about their likelihood to achieve goals. Life satisfaction can be defined as the ability of a person to develop a point of view about life quality under their own judgments (Rode, 2004). It can be seen as a process in which individuals try and reach their own goals and make concrete conclusions about their chances.

Optimism and satisfaction are similar by nature but slightly different by definition. If one is optimistic about their future opportunities as well as come to their own conclusion that their quality of life is high they will have two important components for career development. It is important to help students develop this optimism and satisfaction to sustain them in the development of their careers once they leave college. 

Research conducted by Unuvar, Avsaroglu & Selahattin (2012) of college students in the school of Tourism and Hotel Management  at Selcuk University in Turkey during the spring semesters of 2010 and 2011 assessed life satisfaction and optimism. The goal was to predict optimism by life satisfaction and determine how this impacts student’s outlook. 

Results: 

-Females had higher levels of life satisfaction and more optimistic than men. 

-There is an association with income level increases and life satisfaction and optimism.

-When income levels raise so does life satisfaction and optimism. 

-Students in the tourism industry have a medium level of life satisfaction.

-Positive levels of optimism from students.

-There is a positive relationship between optimism and satisfaction.

Analysis: 

College students in the Hotel and Tourism Management programs have high levels of optimism about their future work arrangements and a moderate level of life satisfaction. The research helps to highlight that optimism is a particularly strong and potent part of motivation to continue studies and work toward career options. Maintaining and growing optimism may help in maintaining levels of effort and motivation. Programs should understand how their language, teaching methods, and approaches influence this optimistic viewpoint. 

Kagitcibasi, C. (1992). Nsan ve nsanlar. Basm. Istanbul, Evrim Yaymcilik.

Oner-Koruklu, N. (2010). Ki ileraras leti im ve Etkili leti im. Ankara, Pegem Akademi.

Rode, J. (2004). Job satisfaction and life satisfaction revisited: a longitudinal test of an integrated model. Human Relations, 57 (9).

Unuvar, S., Avsaroglu, S. & Ulsu, M. (2012). An evaluation of optimism and life satisfaction of undergraduate students in the school of tourism and hotel management. Asian Social Science, 8 (12).