A commentary by Victor Perton, That Optimism Man
Eternally optimistic.
That is how Dr Robyn Stokes describes her outlook, and anyone who has worked with her will agree it is more than a phrase. It is her presence.
I asked the brilliant strategy muse and facilitator what makes her optimistic.
Robyn told me,
"What makes me eternally optimistic is that each and every day, I have the capacity to find positive energy inside myself to transfer sunshine to someone else (and ignite their desire to do the same). Simple acts of optimism are rewarding and infectious, connecting us to others while drawing us back to our own sense of self."
It is a profound insight into the engine room of optimism, a place where energy, purpose, and human connection converge.
Robyn and I collaborated during the Australian G20 presidency, where Robyn served as Strategy Advisor G20 for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Queensland). She brought with her not only brilliance but a curiosity and clarity that inspired fresh thinking in every forum.
Robyn’s reflection is a luminous expression of magnetic optimism, an optimism so tangible and a vision so compelling that people want to reach out and touch it.
Robyn's belief that we can generate inner sunshine and pass it on reminds us that optimism is not simply a mindset. It is a daily practice, a leadership strategy, and a social spark.
I have seen Robyn ask questions that light up people’s minds with wonder; questions that spark creativity, open new possibilities, and generate momentum. Her optimism is not passive. It is proactive, strategic, and generative.
When I was writing Optimism: The How and Why, Robyn also shared this poetic and powerful reflection:
“Optimism is the only mindset. It has urged us to fly into the sky and beyond, see a tiny window of time or space to make a difference, seize it, fail and try again—in our hearts we know we can be ‘third or fourth time lucky’. Inspiration comes from big and small things and just taking a few vital minutes to consider what’s missing in the mundane. Inspiration comes from those before us and after us, from words and action and from what is left unsaid or undone. It is young people cleaning up our oceans patch by patch, building new communities, changing the workplace and sweating less small stuff. It is old people telling stories of what they have conquered and all of us taking the time once in a while ‘to pick up our own opportunities and turn them over like seashells to listen and really hear the sea’.”
This is optimism not as wishful thinking but as leadership, poetry, and purpose a call to see what is possible, and then act.
What if today, you paused to pick up your own opportunity, turned it over like a seashell and really listened to what it is calling you to become?