Your Brain Is Predicting the Future—Are You Helping or Hindering?
Great leaders don’t just make decisions or set direction, they shape what’s possible. Whether at work or in life, our impact grows when we adopt a mindset that is optimistic and intentionally envisions what we want to create.
This isn’t about blind positivity or wishful thinking. It’s about understanding how mindset influences behavior—and how leaders can use that awareness to leverage better outcomes.
Your Brain Is a Prediction Machine
Our brains are predictive by nature. Every day, the brain forecasts what will happen next based on two primary sources: what we’ve experienced in the past, and what we imagine for the future.
If you tend to dwell on past failures, disappointments, or limitations, your brain will often predict more of the same—resulting in cautious leadership, stifled innovation, and missed opportunities.
But when you deliberately envision a future where progress is possible, challenges are passable, and growth is achievable, you give your brain a different set of instructions. And it begins to look for solutions, patterns, and actions aligned with that expectation.
There truly is a connection between envisioning something and making it happen. When you can clearly imagine yourself handling the challenge, leading the team, or navigating change, you begin to act in ways that make that future more likely.
In a very real sense: if you can envision it, you can do it.
Optimism as a Leadership Advantage
Psychologist Martin Seligman’s research helps explain why optimism is not simply a personality trait, but a tangible leadership skill. His work on explanatory styles shows that what differentiates resilient, high-performing people is not the absence of failure, but rather how they interpret it.
Our explanatory style is the way we talk to ourselves (and often to others) when something goes wrong. According to Seligman, we tend to explain setbacks through three dimensions, often referred to as the “3 P’s”:
Personalization
Pessimist: “This happened because of me. I’m the problem.”
Optimist: “This happened because of external factors and/or a specific skill I can improve.”
Permanence
Pessimist: “This will always be this way”
Optimist: “This is temporary. I can influence what happens next".
Pervasiveness
Pessimist: “This affects everything in my life.”
Optimist: “This is limited to this situation or this moment in time, and I have the capacity to impact it.”
What’s striking is that optimism isn’t about denying reality. Optimists still recognize failure, but they frame setbacks in a way that preserves momentum, accountability, and learning. Over time, that mindset ripples outward and compounds into greater resilience, creativity, and effectiveness across the organization.
A Personal Example
Let me share a recent personal example of how adopting an optimistic mindset made all the difference.
I recently attended a rowing camp in Florida with the Survivor Rowing Network, and on the final day, we were divided into boats for racing. As we began strapping our feet into the boat and adjusting our spacers, I realized that something was wrong: the foot mechanism on my left side wasn’t staying connected to the boat.
If you’re not familiar with rowing, you may not know that your legs and feet are the secret sauce—they’re where power originates and how force transfers through the boat. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the right tools to fix the issue before we had to pull away from the dock. And sure enough, as soon as we got on the water, my left foot came completely disconnected.
I raised my foot out of the boat to signal the coaches, and thankfully, we could all appreciate the humor in the moment. After a good laugh, one of them called out, “You’re going to have to use your core like you’ve never used it before.”
In that moment, I had a choice. I could spiral into frustration, reactivity or self-pity: Why now? I can’t do this! Or I could work with what was in front of me. Almost immediately, my mindset shifted to: This is going to be good for me!
There was nothing to be done except try my best and have fun with it. And, thankfully, the body is an incredible system. When you approach a challenge with the right perspective, it rises to the occasion. I adjusted, engaged muscles differently, and stayed focused on what was possible
That race ended up being one of our best. I came away feeling strong, capable, and proud—not because everything went right, but because I was able to be resilient and adapt when it didn’t. A pessimistic mindset could have ruined the entire experience. Instead, I was fully present, enough to even notice the dolphins racing alongside us.
Make Your Mindset Work For You
Every leader is already running an internal narrative about the future. The question is whether that narrative is helping or hindering progress.
When you practice envisioning a future where you handle challenges well, recover from mistakes, and grow through adversity—you’re not escaping reality, you’re training yourself for it. You’re building neural pathways that support confidence, perseverance, and optimism.
The future doesn’t begin when circumstances change. It begins when the story you tell yourself does.
And the good news? That story is one you can choose, again and again.
Mindfully yours,
Ashley