Six Seconds calls it "Exercise Optimism." So what's the exercise?

Our global research shows optimism has dropped 8% since 2019, falling fastest among the youngest people in our workforces. The cost lands on performance. Optimism fuels innovation, risk-taking, and problem-solving, and when it drains, people stop trying: they stop raising the idea, stop volunteering for the hard project, stop believing a different outcome is available. In the Emotional Recession, this is the fuel hardest to find. Which puts anyone who leads or influences others in an odd position, because your optimism becomes a resource other people draw on whether you intended that or not.

Exercise is the operative word. Optimism in this sense means naming clearly what isn't working while investing in new possibilities anyway, on the conviction that more options exist than the ones currently visible. That takes effort. In this session we'll get underneath the mindset advice and into the feelings themselves. On the emotion wheel, optimism is anticipation combined with joy. Pessimism is that same anticipation combined with sadness. The forward-leaning energy is already there either way, and the work is what you mix it with. Bring a real situation you're facing now, and you'll leave having practiced the shift on it.

Key Takeaways

• The Emotional Recipe: How optimism and pessimism get built from the same ingredient, and what separates them, using the emotion-combination approach from Emotion Rules.
• Exercise It, Don't Fake It: A reframing method drawn from Seligman's work on explanatory style. Permanent or temporary? Everywhere or isolated? What part of this answers to my effort? Your optimism stays honest about what's hard.
• Fuel Others Can Use: Take the Optimism Recipe to a real situation, and see why your own emotional state ranks among the most contagious resources you bring to a team.

Who Should Attend

Anyone interested in emotional intelligence. HR and L&D leaders, managers, coaches and consultants, educators, or anyone who's noticed their own optimism running low. No prior experience with Six Seconds or EQ frameworks needed.

Why Join Live

Registering guarantees the recording, but the live session is a different experience. You'll work with your own situation in real time, practice in a small group, and connect with practitioners from around the world. Bring a colleague. This one gets more interesting when you keep talking afterward.

Why We Do These Webinars

As the global nonprofit community for emotional intelligence, we hold these sessions because emotional skills grow through practice, and practice works better together.