Passion Struck with John R. Miles
How Real Optimism Helps You Thrive in Uncertainty | Deepika Chopra - EP 761
30 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Coming up next on Passion Struck.
We've lived through right now, you have lived and gotten through all of your hardest days in X amount of decades of being here on this planet. And that in itself is the fabric and makeup of what, you know, how we increase and cultivate more optimism to help us with our journey and navigating through the other struggles that might come our way or what we can expect for
the hope that things will get better or go well. And optimism is so rooted in that idea of anticipation and expectation. And again, rooted in your personal historical resiliency story.
Welcome to PassionStruck. I'm your host, John Miles. This is the show where we explore the art of human flourishing and what it truly means to live like it matters.
Each week, I sit down with changemakers, creators, scientists, and everyday heroes to decode the human experience and uncover the tools that help us lead with meaning, heal what hurts, and pursue the fullest expression of who we're capable of becoming.
Whether you're designing your future, developing as a leader or seeking deeper alignment in your life, this show is your invitation to grow with purpose and act with intention. Because the secret to a life of deep purpose, connection and impact is choosing to live like you matter. Welcome back, friends, to Episode 761 of PassionStruck. I'm so glad you're here.
Whether this is your first episode or your 200th, thank you for being part of this global community committed to living intentionally, leading with purpose, and creating a world where every person feels like they matter. And today we arrive at the final interview in our monthly Purpose by Design series, where we've been exploring a simple but profound truth.
Purpose isn't something you stumble upon. It's something you design through your choices, through your identity, through your relationships, and through the stories you tell yourself about what is possible. Throughout this series, we've explored purpose through multiple dimensions.
With Arthur Brooks, Harvard professor and bestselling author, we explored meaning and why fulfillment is something we cultivate. With Claude Steele, Stanford social psychologist and pioneering research on stereotype threat, we looked at identity and the hidden forces that shape who we become.
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Chapter 2: What is real optimism and how does it differ from positive thinking?
And so working with oncology patients and their families and it was really there that I had already been really focused on the idea of optimism, but it was really there that it was such a big part of my foundation and really formed how I think about optimism in that experience there. But that's very incredible. Yes, absolutely.
In fact, I would say optimism is truly cultivated in those moments of struggle and hardship. And the reason for that is, again, because it is so closely tied to this idea of being fully rooted and grounded in your current emotional experience. So this is not about swiping something underneath a rug or being delusional. This is hard right now, but it's not the whole story.
And it's not the whole story. So optimism lives in that. And it's important to really preface that it doesn't skip over the hard parts. I always say real optimism doesn't deny the dark. It just helps give us a way to see within it. And that's really important.
And I think people, their ideas of this optimism and thinking about it, they think that only is grown from the moments where we're feeling the happiest or experiencing joy or bliss. And really it's quite the opposite. And I think that
When we persevere through a struggle and we've lived through right now, you have lived and gotten through all of your hardest days in X amount of decades of being here on this planet. And that in itself is the fabric and makeup of what, how we increase and cultivate more optimism to help us with our journey and navigating through.
The other struggles that might come our way or what we can expect for the hope that things will get better or go well. And optimism is so rooted in that idea of anticipation and expectation. And again, rooted in your personal historical resiliency story.
Before we continue, a quick note.
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Chapter 3: How can facing uncertainty cultivate resilience?
If today's conversation is making you rethink what optimism really means, I want to invite you to go deeper. Throughout this Purpose by Design series, we've been exploring how we design meaning, belonging, resilience, and possibility into everyday life. And that's exactly what I'm exploring each week on my substack, theignitedlife.net, through reflection tools, frameworks,
and workbooks designed to help you not just understand these ideas, but live them. If you want to go deeper into building a more intentional, resilient, and ignited life, visit theignitedlife.net. Now, a quick break for our sponsors. Thank you for supporting those who support the show. You're listening to PassionStruck right here on the PassionStruck Network.
Chapter 4: What role do expectations play in shaping our actions?
Now, back to my conversation with Deepika Chopra. One of the things you write in the book is that optimism enhances our physical health in many ways. And a study you cite found that individuals who scored high in optimism lived on average 11 to 15 percent longer, and those who scored lower were significantly more likely than pessimists to live to 80 or older.
So it has some really strong health benefits. But one of the things I've covered a lot on the podcast is toxic positivity, which I think can do the exact opposite. And I wanted to talk about sometimes the harms that toxic positivity can cause.
Absolutely. And I always like to start the conversation of toxic positivity with I truly believe that when we are acting in the realm of toxic positivity, whether it's speaking to ourselves or people around us, it usually most likely always comes from a good intention. It's just the way in which we're doing it. We start with this good intention. It actually, at best,
doesn't work but at worst could be very detrimental to either ourselves or the other people around us and the reason i say that is for a couple different reasons but when someone comes to you and they are offering an openness of going through a struggle or being upset in some way experiencing a negative emotion it's human nature for us to sit across from them to either a want to fix it for them we don't want to see them in pain
that is something that's uncomfortable for us. And we want to, as quickly as possible, bring them out of it because we truly want them to feel better. Or B, we also want them to truly get out of this as quick as possible because it's uncomfortable.
We experience discomfort in presence of their discomfort because then it starts to open up, wait, where are these avenues in my life that are similar to this? And I don't want to experience this. It really comes down a lot of time to, again, good intention, but us being able to sit with the feelings of discomfort and toxic positivity can be really sneaky.
And it can be phrases that we all say that, again, come from a good intention. And we don't even know we're in the realm of toxic positivity. Like when you say everything happens for a reason, or it could be worse. We're hoping that we're helping someone with a perspective shift. which sometimes can really work if we are ready for that.
But oftentimes when it's said to us, or we say it, it's an immediate response or reaction to when we are just in the opening of experiencing a negative emotion, which we are not at that moment ready to just turn that off and shut it off. It can be like good vibes only. It can look like, don't worry, be happy. Things will get better right away. And so these type of phrases are,
Forced positivity, which we know from a brain standpoint does not work and it ignores difficulty. And I think that the hardest part of it is it vilifies us being able to experience and almost puts a shame on the whole human range of emotion, which we were actually built to experience.
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