As a new year approaches, many people are taking time to reflecton the challenges they faced in 2010 and consider the possibilitiesthat await them in 2011.

For some, those possibilities will be more of the same challengesas unemployment continues to hover between 9 and 10 percent and adifficult economy adds concerns and worry for those in tenuous jobsituations. Government leaders at all levels have struggled tomaintain as many services as possible while also not adding totaxpayers’ already heavy burden.

Against this backdrop, a spirit of optimism is needed.

That spirit, at least in part, can be found in the results of a newsurvey released this past week by the Mississippi EconomicCouncil.

The reason for only partial optimism is that, according to thesurvey, business leaders have a brighter outlook on the future thanvoters, who appear to be more skeptical about the years ahead.Business leaders and voters agreed the economy is bad, butdifferences can been seen in the respective group’s feelings on thefuture.

Among business leaders, 45 percent believe Mississippi hasweathered the recession better than the rest of the nation. Incontrast, only 20 percent of voters believe that.

Furthermore, 62 percent of business leaders believe the nation’sbest times are still ahead and 68 percent expect an improved stateoutlook in the next couple of years. Fifty percent or less ofvoters share those feelings.

“Business leaders generally feel a sense of optimism earlier,because they are closer to the changing marketplace,” a surveysummary said.

Perhaps this means there is room for some “trickle down optimism”to be found in survey results.

Evidence of that can be seen in the findings that 28 percent ofbusiness leaders expect to have more employees by this same timenext year, compared to only 7 percent who expect to have fewer.This suggests that job opportunities, which can’t yet be realizeduntil projects actually come online, should be more available in2011 and give those seeking employment reason for optimism.

While their feelings on the future may differ, business leaders andvoters agree on what’s most important as it approaches. About halfof both groups say jobs and the economy are most important, witharound 20 percent of both groups indicating that education andworkforce preparedness are a strong second.

State leaders could also find some direction and guidance from thesurvey results, as both business leaders and voters mostly agree ona course of action. Eighty-five percent of business leaders and 73percent of voters said state government needs to live within itsmeans and not raise taxes to address budget difficulties – even ifthat means cutting services.

One’s outlook on the future in very large part depends onindividual circumstances and pessimism tends to breed morepessimism.

Given recent economic reports, there seems to be more reason foroptimism than pessimism. The latest MEC report supports thatposition.

Certainly there remain many challenges ahead, but a positiveoutlook on the future will make those hills easier to climb for allof us.