“You know you are in deep trouble; so you face the brutal facts of the challenge you’re facing. But at the same time you feel deeply that you will prevail.”

This quote comes from James Stockdale, a prisoner of war for over seven years in Vietnam.  Stockdale's perspective on acknowledging the reality of your adversity while still holding to the belief that things will work out became known as the Stockdale Paradox, a central takeaway from research done by Dr. Dennis Charney.  Dr. Charney studied a variety of people who had survived adversity in its most extreme forms and yet somehow come out of it without the depression, PTSD, and harmful emotional scar tissue one would expect.   He compiled a list of characteristics that set these people apart, and the #1 characteristic was a simple yet misunderstood quality - optimism.