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Success Requires Optimism, But You Can Fake It Till You Make It

This article is more than 8 years old.

“The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” —Albert Schweitzer

All one has to do is Google the word Optimist to locate study after study showing that Optimists do better in most avenues of life than Pessimists. Studies show that Optimists accomplish more, make more money, have happier marriages, and live longer. And is that really so surprising to any of us?

From the time we were little children we were introduced to the notion of optimism and pessimism in A.A. Milne’s classic Winnie the Pooh series. We saw the illustration of Tigger, the ultimate optimist and Eeyore, the consummate pessimist. Let’s compare the two:

First we have Tigger. He’s happy and bouncy, not to mention the fact that he is fun fun fun fun fun! You just know you will have a great time hanging out with Tigger. A great example of Tigger’s optimistic personality is seen in this excerpt from The House on Pooh Corner where Tigger is startled by the tablecloth on Winnie the Pooh’s table:

"Excuse me a moment, but there's something climbing up your table," and with one loud Worraworraworraworraworra he jumped at the end of the tablecloth, pulled it to the ground, wrapped himself up in it three times, rolled to the other end of the room, and, after a terrible struggle, got his head into the daylight again, and said cheerfully: "Have I won?"

Next we have Eeyore. Eeyore always has a dark rain cloud hovering over his head, he always wants to be alone, and he constantly talks about how miserable life is and how miserable he is. Which makes sense given that his self-proclaimed mantra is, “I never get my hopes up, so I never get let down.” We see more of Eeyore’s personality in this excerpt from the book Winnie the Pooh during an interchange between Pooh and Eeyore when Pooh notices that Eeyore’s tail is missing and inquires what’s happened to it. Eeyore turns to see that in fact his tail is missing and states the following:

"That Accounts for a Good Deal," said Eeyore gloomily. "It Explains Everything. No Wonder."

"You must have left it somewhere," said Winnie the Pooh.

"Somebody must have taken it," said Eeyore. "How Like Them," he added, after a long silence.

Eeyore was the master of catastrophizing. Catastrophizing is when a person’s thoughts jump to predicting worst case outcomes to situations followed by jumping to the conclusion that if this outcome were to happen it would be a complete and utter catastrophe. For this type of person a cough isn’t just a cough, it’s the precursor to a certain and deadly pneumonia. And when this type of person is running a day late on an assignment they instantly jumps to the assumption that they will surely be fired and end up unemployed, penniless, and homeless.

Karen Reivich, PhD and author of The Resilience Factor suggests that in order to beat this disorder you exaggerate your worst case scenarios to the point of comic hilarity, “At some point you think, Oh, come on, now. Am I really going to be living beneath an underpass in a refrigerator box because I’m a day late on a project?” She suggests you take your catastrophizing to the comical extreme by imagining yourself having to go so far as needing to trap squirrels to eat for your dinner. By imaging the silly extreme you help yourself recognize how ridiculous your thoughts have become and snap yourself out of them. Reivich explains, “The beauty of this goofing around is that you feel a bit of power over your thoughts and the situation. That sense of control is the antidote to pessimism."

Here are a few more scientifically proven antidotes for pessimism that will help you become more optimistic:

The Way You Walk

A study published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychology found that when people walk with a happier, more upright gait, they cause themselves to actually start feeling happier. 

The Way You Smile

In a 1988 study, “researchers asked people to hold a pencil with either their teeth or their lips, mimicking either a smile or a frown. The ‘smilers’ (who used their teeth) were found to rank cartoons as funnier than did their ‘frowning’ counterparts. The conclusion was that even a fake smile can make you happier.”

The Way You Imagine Yourself

Jeff Wise posted an article in Psychology Today where he advises readers to “Imagine the person you want to be, and then become them.” He states, “People do transform their lives, every day. But for the most part they don’t do it by relying on willpower. The key, it turns out, is to simply start behaving like the person you want to become. Instead of wondering, What should I do?, imagine your future, better self and ask: What would they do? This approach works because of the rather surprising way that our brains form self-judgments. Numerous experiments have demonstrated that when it comes to forming beliefs about our own character and proclivities, we don’t peer inward, as you might expect; instead, we observe our own external behavior. If we see ourselves carrying out a particular action—whatever the actual motivation—our self-conception molds itself to explain that reality.”

Is it any wonder that if we were given the choice of who to spend our lives with we would prefer Tigger? Of course we would be naturally drawn to happy, optimistic people, and let’s face it, Tigger had the bouncebackability factor down. He was full of energy, courage, love, optimism, and faith that everything would work out fabulously simply by bouncing back.

Each of us has the ability to channel our inner Tigger if we choose. We just have to remember that Life isn't about how fast you run or how high you climb but how well you bounce.” -Vivian Komori

~Amy Rees Anderson (follow my daily blogs at www.amyreesanderson.com/blog )