“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Winston Churchill
Research shows that optimists enjoy many health and lifestyle benefits, including greater achievement, greater health, a sense of persistence toward goals, greater emotional health, increased longevity, and lower reactivity to stress.
Promise Yourself
To be SO STRONG that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the GREATER ACHIEVEMENTS of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance AT ALL TIMES and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have NO TIME to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now wrote, “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the now, have your dwelling place in the now and pay brief visits to the past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation.”
Optimism is about seeing potential and working creatively with—but not being limited by— the challenges. Optimism combines having a positive outlook of what’s happening now and having a positive vision of the future.
The key to optimism is understanding how you are narrating the story of the events and experiences of your life. A story has many angles. But all the angles of the story don’t matter. What only matters is how you perceive the story, how you accept it and how you react to it. While we don’t have control over what’s occurring on Wall Street or Main Street, we do have control over how we interpret the events playing out in our own lives.
Optimism is about being positive and confident regarding our work and effort, something each of us is capable of doing in our own way. Research in Positive Psychology tells us that those who adopt an optimistic mindset are healthier, less prone to depression, live longer, and lead happier more satisfying lives.
Optimists look for opportunities for growth and positive change, but more importantly, they stay tethered to the present reality. It’s not about pretending that all is well or about avoiding challenging situations. It’s about thinking accurately, acting with confidence, making calculated risks, and when things go wrong, perceiving those setbacks as temporary, and using innovation, flexibility and resilience to learn from the fall and move forward.
“Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution.” – David J. Schwartz
References:
- https://www.verywellmind.com/become-more-of-an-optimist-3144818
- https://tamarchansky.com/tools/safe-optimism/
- https://www.optimist.org/Documents/creed_poster.pdf
Health, Wealth, Emotional Well-Being, Purpose and Success