TRACOM’s Developing a Resilient Mindset program teaches us how to combat our counterproductive ways of thinking. We often discuss the negativity bias, and the repercussions of this natural pattern of thinking, but what are some of the other biases that we face that the Resiliency Model helps us conquer?
DRAINING is actually an acronym featured in the course and each letter of the word represents a character and a pattern of thinking. A type of person we have all been at one time or another, or have interacted and worked with.
The D in DRAINING represents Disastrous Diane. Check out our blog on Disastrous Diane to learn more about this pattern of thinking. The R is for Rosey Ray.
Rosey Ray means to be unrealistically positive. When we act as a Rosey Ray we magnify and put greater emphasis on the positive while minimizing and actually ignoring the negative. You might think Rosey Ray sounds awesome! Why wouldn’t you want to be acting similar to this upbeat, positive, Rosey Ray character?
While optimism is an essential trait to living a happy life, and is especially important for having a high resiliency, it is important to remain realistic in our optimism. To pretend that everything is all rainbows and glitter when it isn’t can be downright harmful to you and your organization. You must be able to face negativity while still looking for the positives. This doesn’t mean turning a blind eye when any negative information is present (ahem… your Rosey Ray is showing), it means facing challenges head on and with an optimistic outlook, while still acknowledging the difficulties and challenges afoot.
Many of us fall victim to becoming a “Rosey Ray” when we are thinking about the future. Rosey Ray demonstrates how people appear when they have an optimism bias, which typically occurs when we are thinking about the future. Think about it, we often reason that, “I will definitely have enough money saved to buy that car next year and go on a vacation this year”, or “Certainly I can juggle working the weekend shift, volunteering at my church, and getting my kids to their soccer games and dance recitals.” This optimism bias hinders our ability to realistically weigh the realities of a situation which can cause us extra stress down the road. This is why so many projects are over budget, run long past their original completion date, and some never become completed.
Developing realistic optimism is a key component of TRACOM’s Resiliency program. We define realistic optimism as an individuals’ tendency to see the world in a positive way, but also remain grounded in reality. Through TRACOM’s resiliency training program, participants learn their weaknesses pertaining to resiliency and are then given tools to stimulate the areas of resiliency they are weak in.
