Why Optimism is so Important

Imagine yourself going throughout a typical day: you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I look terrible!” This is your worst case of a bad hair day yet, you look at the clock and you’re running late—Oh, no, you overslept! You decide to slip a beanie on and run out the door without breakfast. Later that day, some very old, crazy lady makes a rude comment about your attire, while walking down the street you slip into a puddle and get drenched, and you get a call from your landlord claiming your apartment is a mess and you need to clean it up or face eviction. By the time you get home for the evening you’re too exhausted to do anything and you reflect on your day, ”what a wasted day, I just want it to be over with.” You look at the mess around your apartment and tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow. You look in the cupboard and you’re all out of food and need to go to the grocery store but you just don’t feel like it, so you settle for some junk food that you found lying around. When you go to bed, your pillow is too hard and it takes you forever to get to bed, which causes you to oversleep again the next day.

Now imagine yourself on the same day, only this time you act more optimistically. You wake up a little late, have wicked bed head, and you laugh at yourself. You realize what time it is and you put on a beanie and run out the door—While you’re rushing out you realize how awake you feel now that your blood is circulating and it occurs to you that you might want to start exercising in the morning. The same crazy lady make a rude comment about what you’re wearing and you blow it off, she has no clue about how bizarre your morning has been and yet to you it’s a little exciting. While running down the street you slip into a puddle and get water all over your pants, oh well, I’m going to do my laundry today anyway. By the time you get home you check the messages on your phone and the landlord has ordered you to clean your apartment, so you add that to your list of things to do. You feel as though you have had quite an adventure today and although you’re exhausted you’re still laughing at the fact that people must have thought you peed your pants with all that water on them. You finish your laundry and clean up your apartment and say to yourself “Wow, what a crazy day today was. I’m going to go tell my friends about how funny things have been for me.” You call your friends to discover that they’re going out to eat and ask if you want to come. You end up having a great time with your friends and you’re so tired that you don’t even care how hard your bed is and you fall right asleep.

Who had a better day?

You’ve probably heard it all before about how you should be optimistic, but have you ever thought about how it affects your relationships with other people? If you want to have a happy life, full of meaningful relationships and eventually a happy marriage, you need to start by looking at life as though the glass is half-full rather than the half-empty. There is amazing power in being optimistic which almost willfully makes your life better. It is more than just being grateful for what you have been given, but it is an outpouring of more blessings due to your optimistic nature.






Misery loves company, and negativity only attracts negativity. What that means is that when you are negative, other people who share your same negative views in life will be attracted to you. If you keep up your behavior you will eventually discover that all of your friends share the same critical view of life as you do. Other people tend to avoid those who they see as having extreme pessimistic behavior. Most people perceive pessimism as anything more negative than they are. In essence, when you are negative, you are limiting yourself from building good relationships with certain people who see themselves as more optimistic than you are.
On the other hand, if you are primarily optimistic, you won’t limit yourself from developing relationships at all. In fact, a few people might even latch on to you in an attempt to have your optimism wear off on them. -–it can only be a good thing for you to be optimistic. Also, according to a 2009 study by the University of Pittsburgh, people who live optimistic lives also live longer and enjoy better health, which can in turn allow you to enjoy your relationships with others a lot better. The benefits to an optimistic lifestyle are obviously numerous.

There are various self-healing and mental health groups that focus on optimism as the main key to overcoming serious illnesses; and many people across the world have seem amazing results from simply framing their life to be more optimistic, but how does one tap into the power of optimism?

I have isolated 3 general points that you can focus on to become more optimistic, however, the key to being optimistic is focusing on an honest attempt to become more positive.

1. Optimism towards Yourself
2. Optimism among Others
3. Optimism in Society

Optimism towards Yourself - We are our own worst critics. Why is it that we put ourselves down whenever we make stupid mistakes? Why is it, after we’ve made it through something really hard, we feel as though we didn’t do as well as we would have liked?
Each time you put yourself down or you tell yourself that you don’t measure up to your own expectations, you add to your negativity.
Mistakes are part of life; no one is perfect. Mistakes are what help us learn and progress, not our successes. Next time you feel the urge to think or say negative things to yourself, replace it with something positive or humorous.
“Oops, I'm such a clutz for dropping the fork on the ground"—>"wow, I’ve never seen food launch so far!”
Optimism among Others - This is divided into two parts: what you say about others and what you say about yourself. You shouldn’t tell people about your faults or flaws or downplay your abilities; be honest with people, but try not to tell people about how bad you are. Not only does it make you look bad that you’re willing to admit such things, but the repetition of it might make them believe it!
Don’t talk poorly about other people either. Try to paint everyone in a positive light, you never know when you’ll make friends with that person, or wish you had.
Optimism in Society - Let’s face it, people aren’t always nice, but that doesn’t mean you should be rude back to them. You should avoid saying bad things about other people; but more importantly, don’t assume the worst about other people. No one is perfect, people make mistakes all the time and if you still want to be optimistic towards a world that does rude things, both on accident and on purpose, then you need to stop reflecting on the problem.
There will always be people out there who purposely go around spreading hate and anger, this is because someone did something offensive to them and they are sharing it with you. It can become a major avalanche if you don’t take the steps to stop it from spreading. When people say or do negative things to you, resist the urge to retaliate and instead brush it off. When you reflect on how offensive some people are it can cause you to start engaging in those same negative behaviors that you dislike.

Put simply, be optimistic about yourself and other people.
The greatest hope given to God’s children is that when they make mistakes they can still repent and fix the problem. So even if you feel pessimistic because you’re not meeting your own expectations, or you’re pessimistic because you’ve done something wrong, or you’re pessimistic because others have or keep doing things to you, none of that really matters: you will eventually meet your expectations, you can repair any damage done by your misdeeds, and although other people might make mistakes, you don’t have to follow in their footsteps.