When asked to review Resilient Optimism, by Michelle Gielan, I was excited. Her decades of research into positive psychology and neuroscience gives her real insights into what it takes to maintain a positive mindset in tough times. And with a background as a CBS news anchor, she knows how to present important information.
The book doesn’t disappoint. Gielan maintains that optimism is based on habits rather than genetics or upbringing. It’s completely learnable.
She breaks down resilience into five core behaviors: recalibrating your mindset, transforming your stress response, triaging commitments, recharging strategically, and scaling social support. And in each area, she offers low-friction tactics that can be integrated into daily corporate and personal routines right away.
The book’s strongest asset is its sheer volume of evidence. Gielan backs up every point with empirical research and real-world stories. From high-stakes workplace environments to personal crisis points, her case studies prove these habits are both realistic and scalable. You leave every chapter with a clear sense of how to implement the core ideas.
My one critique is that it has many of the hallmarks of AI writing. It contains, to my taste, far too many “not X, but Y” structures, which, for a book dedicated to human energy and positive psychology, feels like a disconnect.
In her defence, the book’s publisher, Harvard Review Business Press, has a strict anti-AI policy, and Gielan herself has shared:
“My first book was one of many used to train the LLMs (I believe I am due a check from the Anthropic settlement). So it appears my writing style is now being used to flag my writing style. As background, I’ve been writing for 20 years. I used em dashes all over my first book because we used them regularly in broadcasting scripts, and they are so helpful. I also personally love “not X, but Y.” If someone were to put my first book from 2015 in an AI checker I am sure parts of it would flag.“
Ultimately, Resilient Optimism succeeds where it matters most: the substance. If you can look past her style, Gielan provides an exceptional, story-driven toolkit for sustaining mental capital when times get tough.
Verdict: 4/5 stars. High on practical value and rich in real-world examples.
