"What makes me optimistic? I naturally navigate and strategise a problem to achieve an outcome. I focus on the outcome or what we want to achieve instead of only focusing on the roadblocks right before us."
That's what Vick Woodburn told me when I asked what makes her optimistic. Mindset underpins Vick's optimism, and she describes herself as a natural optimist.
Vicki Woodburn is Group Executive for the Australian Climate Service.
The Australian Climate Service helps its customers better understand the threats posed by a changing climate and natural hazards to limit the impacts now and in the future. The service is a partnership of the Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia, CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Its mission is to bring the Australian Commonwealth's extensive climate and natural hazard information into a single national view.
I asked Vick what makes her feel optimistic. Vick told me, What makes me feel optimistic? Identifying the path to the outcome and seeing progress along the path: I don't need the miracle, but I do like to see the small changes you can see when the pathway starts to work. That doesn't mean the pathway might not need tweaks, but seeing attitudes, beliefs and changes in others seeing the pathway and wanting to work towards it is satisfying."