The Survivor Personality - why some people beat the odds.

Research of the survivor personality highlights personal attributes that help people survive against the odds. These personality traits have been studied in a range of potentially overwhelming circumstances: 

• People lost or stranded

• Life threatening medical situations

• Accident and trauma

• Redundancy

• Prisoners of War

• Entrepreneurial failure.

One of the key traits is an optimistic mindset, but it’s not rose-coloured-glasses-blind-faith-fingers-in-the-ears optimism.

It’s optimism tempered by reality. Blind optimism may work in the short term. It’ll get you over a small hump. When pitted against massive adversity or long burn situations though, it falls over and can actually lead to despair. Imagine an optimistic view “the market will turn by the end of the week”. Each week that passes with no turn is another knock to the belief. Add enough of those together and the person may get totally overwhelmed by the circumstances they face.

Adding reality to optimism is simple - Focus on what you can control.

Here are some examples of effective optimism

What are you currently facing? How could you adjust your mindset to be more Unshakeable in the long term?