{"id":4724,"date":"2014-06-22T23:20:42","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T05:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=4724"},"modified":"2014-06-22T23:21:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T05:21:10","slug":"make-the-choice-to-be-an-optimist-not-a-pessimist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/make-the-choice-to-be-an-optimist-not-a-pessimist\/","title":{"rendered":"Make The Choice To Be An Optimist, Not a Pessimist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 – Harry Truman<\/span><\/p>\n

Pessimism:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pessimism is defined as a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. \u00a0It is always expecting the worst possible outcome.\u00a0 It is living with a lack of faith.\u00a0 The study of pessimism has parallels with the study of depression.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Studies have shown that depression is linked to unrealistic negative views about the world.\u00a0 Pessimism is sometimes understood to be self-fulfilling prophecies.<\/p>\n

Being around pessimistic people is something that I decided long ago I would not have tolerance for.\u00a0 The reason I made such a strong decision about avoiding negative people is that I had noticed that nothing spreads faster than negativity.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a cancer that spreads to everything it comes in contact with.\u00a0 \u00a0It is designed to tear someone down, to make them question everything good in their life, and I found that if I allowed myself to be surrounded with negative people in my life that they would eventually start to suck the good out of my life and that was something I just wouldn\u2019t stand for.\u00a0 As the CEO of my company I grew to understand the importance of hiring only optimistic people and not bringing in pessimistic people.\u00a0 We even set the company policy to be that anyone who was constantly negative, mean-spirited, backbites, etc. would be let go from the company.\u00a0 We adopted a zero tolerance for Negative, Pessimistic people working in the company because we had seen far too many times how quickly they became a cancer to the company if not dealt with.<\/p>\n

Optimism:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Optimism as \u201chopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favorable or hopeful view.\u201d\u00a0 It is expecting the best possible outcome from any situation.\u00a0 Optimism has also been linked to good health.<\/p>\n

The American Psychological Association did a study which confirmed the assumption that optimism is related to psychological well-being: \u201cPut simply, optimists emerge from difficult circumstances with less distress than do pessimists.\u201d \u00a0Furthermore, the correlation appears to be attributable to coping style: \u201cThat is, optimists seem intent on facing problems head-on, taking active and constructive steps to solve their problems; pessimists are more likely to abandon their effort to attain their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

In comparing the health and well-being of an optimistic person over a pessimistic person, there is just no question of which leads to a happier life. \u00a0And the most important thing to recognize is that we have a choice of which we will be – we can choose to be an optimist rather than a pessimist – it is just that simple. Make the choice!<\/p>\n

In closing I will share a great poem that illustrates today\u2019s topic well:<\/p>\n

Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl,
\nOne was an optimistic soul;
\nBut the other took the gloomy view,
\n\u201cI shall drown,\u201d he cried, \u201cand so will you.\u201d
\nSo with a last despairing cry,
\nHe closed his eyes and said, \u201cGood-bye.\u201d
\nBut the other frog, with a merry grin
\nSaid, \u201cI can\u2019t get out, but I won\u2019t give in!
\nI\u2019ll swim around till my strength is spent.
\nFor having tried, I\u2019ll die content.\u201d
\nBravely he swam until it would seem
\nHis struggles began to churn the cream.
\nOn the top of the butter at last he stopped
\nAnd out of the bowl he happily hopped.
\nWhat is the moral? It\u2019s easily found.
\nIf you can\u2019t get out \u2014 keep swimming around!
\n–Author Unknown<\/p>\n

Have an Optimistic Monday everyone!<\/p>\n

~Amy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.\u201d\u00a0 – Harry Truman Pessimism: Pessimism is defined as a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. \u00a0It is always expecting the worst possible outcome.\u00a0 It is living with a lack of faith.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4378,855,504,224,2948,778,4376,178,4377,4379,7,364,76,4374,246,2265,53,217,1075,692,1745,4368,1482,4375,4369,4370,143,153,4372,4371,149,2104,4373],"class_list":["post-4724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-psychological-association","tag-cancer","tag-choice","tag-confidence","tag-coping","tag-depression","tag-english-dictionary","tag-faith","tag-favorable","tag-frogs","tag-future","tag-goal","tag-goals","tag-harry-truman","tag-health","tag-hopeful","tag-motivation","tag-negative","tag-opportunities","tag-opportunity","tag-optimism","tag-optimist","tag-outcome","tag-oxford","tag-pessimism","tag-pessimist","tag-poem","tag-positive","tag-prophecies","tag-self-fulfilling","tag-success","tag-tear-down","tag-tolerance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4725,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724\/revisions\/4725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}