Mark Pollock

Pessimists lean towards the hopeless, but optimists may rely on hope alone without any grounding in facts. Neither seem useful.

Realists sit somewhere in between. And, to explain it is worth considering Aristotle’s spectrum principle called “the golden mean” that he developed 2,500 years ago.

It describes a middle ground between two extremes where the balance is found slightly to one side of the mid-point.

Realists don’t operate at the extremes. Rather, they run acceptance and hope in parallel, their golden mean pushing them to the hopeful side of the midpoint between hope and hopeless.

Leaders focused on sustaining optimal performance understand the fine line between anxiety that compromises performance and excitement that drives it.

It’s a combination of physiological, psychological and neurological factors that push us towards one or the other.

Lots of leaders are attempting to stay on the right side of the line through physical exercise, meditation, gratitude practices or even cold-water plunges right through the winter!

Personally, I’ve never managed to get into sea swimming or meditation, but a complimentary approach to flip anxiety into excitement is ‘box breathing’ where you breathe in for six seconds, then hold for six. Then six seconds out and finally a six second hold.

You just keep repeating this. It’s amazing and good for all occasions – when you’re trying to get to sleep, before a difficult conversation or when you’re just feeling stress levels rising for no good reason.