When has pessimism ever served you?
Pessimism doesn’t make you happier. It doesn’t make your more courageous or confident. It doesn’t allow you to see the possibilities of your circumstances (just the opposite, in fact). And it only makes you angry, depressed and/or apathetic. Certainly, we take a special delight in criticizing the world we live in and using our lack of opportunities as a scapegoat for not making positive change in our lives. But that doesn’t change anything (and you know it), it doesn’t make you more happy, and it certainly doesn’t empower you with the belief in the possibility that you can make your world better.
Regularly committing yourself to maintaining an optimistic point of view, on the other hand, can make you a much more joyful, contented and creative person. It can help you appreciate what you have (an opposed to what you don’t) and the circumstances and choices you have leverage over. It can also help you see incredible opportunities that other people less enlightened miss. And it because beliefs have tendency to be self-fulfilling, it can help you to continue to be more optimistic in the future.
If you want to cultivate a positive viewpoint, start by examining your self-talk and your internal narrative about your world and your circumstances. Consider word choice: do you say “I can’t” as opposed to “that’s challenging.” Remove simple words and concepts that have negative connotations such as “I hate my…life, job, friends, etc.” Then replace those thoughts with a narrative that affirms a positive viewpoint, “I like my job because…” but leaves room for the possibility of improvement, “but I’d like to switch jobs because…” Also consider who you spend the most time with. Do you surround yourself with people who believe anything is possible, or is your tribe made up of people who only place limitations on your goals and dreams?
Optimism is a habit, a discipline and a practice. Obviously, it doesn’t help much to be positive for a day or a week. But with practice, you can begin the see the world through new lens. Changing your thinking, your posture, and by extension your decisions, choices and reality. Sure, pessimism is a fun thing to do when you want to hate the world or be sad about your place in it. But optimism is the only way I know to create a sustainable future worth living in.