Passage 31. Choose Optimism
If you expect something to turn out badly, it probably will.Pessimism is seldom disappointed. But the same principle also works in reverse.If you expect good things to happen, they usually do! There seems to be a natural cause-and-effect relationship between optimism and success.
Optimism and pessimism are both powerful forces,and each of us must choose which we want to shape our outlook and our expectations.There is enough good and bad in everyone’s life—ample sorrow and happiness,sufficient joy and pain—to find a rational basis for either optimism or pessimism. We can choose to laugh or cry, bless or curse.It’s our decision: From which perspective do we want to view life?Will we look up in hope or down in despair?I believe in the upward look. I choose to highlight the positive and slip right over the negative.I am an optimist by choice as much as by nature.Sure, I know that sorrow exists.I am in my 70s now, and I’ve lived through more than one crisis.But when all is said and done, I find that the good in life far outweighs the bad.An optimistic attitude is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.The way you look at life will determine how you feel, how you perform,and how well you will get along with other people.Conversely, negative thoughts, attitudes,and expectations feed on themselves;they become a self-fulfilling prophecy.Pessimism creates a dismal place where no one wants to live.The only thing more powerful than negativism is a positive affirmation,a word of optimism and hope.One of the things I am most thankful for is the fact that I have grown up in a nation with a grand tradition of optimism.When a whole culture adopts an upward look, incredible things can be accomplished.When the world is seen as a hopeful, positive place, people are empowered to attempt and to achieve.