Joe Torre knows how to win.
As a player, he won a spot on the National League All-Star team nine times. As a manager, Joe Torre won 13 division titles, four World Series championships, and the fifth-most games in the history of Major League Baseball.
Throughout his career, Torre identified several key qualities shared by winners, but there was one single quality that rose above the rest…
Drive. Competitiveness. Determination. Commitment. These are the qualities we associate with winners.
But each one of these characteristics depends on one other: optimism.
Without optimism—that gut-level belief that we can succeed—we are far less likely to realize our dreams. Setbacks and slumps will stop us cold if we don’t have basic faith in ourselves.
No matter how badly we want to succeed, if we don’t feel optimistic about our abilities and our potential, every day is going to be a struggle.
Life deals its blows to each one of us. Whether the setbacks occur in our personal or professional lives, they can ruin our dreams for success—if we let them.
Optimism is the ability to accept negative events without allowing them to destroy our resolve.
I’ve learned many lessons about life from baseball, and here’s an important one: It’s not always going to be wonderful. Slumps are inevitable, they aren’t signs that we don’t have what it takes to succeed.
Here’s my bottom line: Acknowledge that you’ve had a bad day, but don’t live there. Move on with as much confidence as you can muster.
If I hadn’t followed this advice, I might have quit baseball a long time ago.
— Joe Torre, from his book Joe Torre’s Ground Rules for Winners
Great coaches, leaders, and achievers all recognize how massively important it is to be optimistic. And it’s interesting to note how life’s biggest winners all tend to define optimism.
We sometimes hear people say that “optimism” doesn’t work. They tell us they tried “positive thinking,” but it didn’t work for them. They say they that despite thinking only positive thoughts, setbacks still occurred. But what they’re describing is not “positive thinking,” it’s “wishful thinking.”
This is where Joe Torre’s two-part definition of optimism is crucial to understand. He defines optimism as: “that gut-level belief that we can succeed” and “the ability to accept negative events without allowing them to destroy our resolve.”
In other words, optimism won’t prevent setbacks from occurring. Nothing will. If you think only positive thoughts, it doesn’t mean that only positive things will be “attracted” to you. That’s just not reality.
Instead, optimism is the fuel you need to overcome the setbacks that will surely come your way as you pursue any worthy goal.
Optimism means believing you will eventually succeed despite the setbacks. It means that as long as you believe in yourself and continue to see the opportunity in every obstacle, the tough times will eventually give way to good times.
Setbacks and adversity are part of the process. There’s no way to avoid them. But, embracing an optimistic attitude will allow you to overcome those setbacks.
As stated in my book, Relentless Optimism: “Optimism won’t prevent negative events from happening; optimism will ensure that you respond to those negative events in the most beneficial way possible—a way that leads to positive outcomes.”
Tough times will come no matter what. That’s life. But always remember this: success follows optimism.
It may not happen overnight, but if you keep believing in yourself and keep moving forward despite the setbacks, success will eventually follow. That’s how an optimist thinks.
