rutally Honest OptimismOptimism reduces our sense of helplessness when things feel out of control. It also allows motivates us to take constructive action. However this is not the Pollyanna, unicorns and rainbows, “everything’s going to be okay” brand of optimism (although we often need to hear that everything’s going to be okay even if we don’t really believe it).Late Vice Admiral James Stockdale was one of the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prisoners in Vietnam, whose 8 years of imprisonment included long years in solitary confinement with the lights on 24 hours a day. Talking about his ability to survive this incredible ordeal he said: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”When asked who did not get out alive he replied, “Oh that’s easy. The optimists. They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”