Facing difficulties is all part of life. It can often feel like we face endless challenges instead of happy endings – when we overcome one challenge, another one rears its ugly head. Some people I know grew stronger through these challenges, some became weaker and couldn’t see hope anymore. Two friends of mine were made redundant from their job during the recent financial crisis: while one felt humiliated, lost confidence and therefore had difficulty finding a new job, the other analyzed the situation, spent time identifying his strengths, saw it as an opportunity for growth and found himself a senior manager role in a new company. It’s not how many challenges we’ve been through that differentiate us, it’s how we see these challenges that matter. It’s not just optimism. It’s resilience While optimism is a positive outlook defined as “the quality of being full of hope and emphasizing the good parts of a situation, or a belief that something good will happen”, there is a differen