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ARE YOU AN OPTIMIST OR A
PESSIMIST?
By Chris Widener
I have been giving some
thought lately to optimism and pessimism. Basically,
these are attitudes. Attitudes that shape and formulate
our entire existence. I mean, have you ever met a happy
pessimist? Of course not.
In short, our optimism or pessimism is this:
The way we interpret the past
The way we experience and view the present
The way we imagine the future
Have you given much thought about how your attitude,
whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, affects you
business, organization or school? Have you thought about
how it affects you personally? And what about the team
you are a part of?
What is optimism? It is a belief that things in our past
were good for us, even if that means they were hard and
taught us lessons. It is also the belief that things
will be better in the future.
Here are some contrasts
between optimism and pessimism and how they affect us:
Optimism breathes life into you each day
Pessimism drains you
Optimism helps you to take needed risks
Pessimism plays it safe and never accomplishes much
Optimism improves those around you
Pessimism drags them down
Optimism inspires people to great heights
Pessimism deflates people to new lows
There is only one way that optimism and pessimism are
the same and that is that they are both self-fulfilling.
If you are an optimist, you will generally find that
good things happen to you. And if you are a pessimist,
you will find yourself in the not-so-good situations
more often than not.
So can a person just become
an optimist? Yes! We can choose to look at the world any
way we want to. We can choose to look at the world and
think the worst, or we can tell ourselves the good
things about each situation. As you find yourself
looking at your enterprise, begin to view it through the
eyes of an optimist, and you will reap the rewards
listed above, and so will the people around you.
There are tremendous benefits to being an optimist, as
stated above. But there are some pessimists out there
who will say, "But that isn't realistic." I say "Who
cares?" If things go awry, at least I have spent my time
beforehand enjoying life and not worrying about it. And,
being an optimist, I would view the "negative" situation
as an opportunity to grow and learn. So I can even look
forward to my failures because they will be stepping
stones,
and learning tools to be applied to my future success.
Have you ever met a
successful pessimist? Become an optimist and see your
world change before your eyes!
Chris Widener is a popular
speaker and writer as well as the President of Made for
Success, a company helping individuals and organizations
turn their potential into performance, succeed in every
area of their lives and achieve their dreams.
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