Optimism Wins Every Time!
One attitude may literally contribute to you succeeding in today’s media-centric environment, with so much information being pushed our way from Facebook, Google, and Twitter, and that is an attitude of optimism. It’s funny if I look back over my life and consider the moments when I’ve had incredible success and the times when I’ve had extended periods of failure, I’ve always been extremely happy when I’ve succeeded and gloomy and pessimistic when I’ve failed. I’m not saying I didn’t suffer enormous challenges and failures when I was positive and successful; I did, but it was all because of my positive approach. I attacked obstacles with determination and positivity, and that made all the difference.
There are three key concepts to consider in order to be optimistic:
Instead of criticizing, show empathy.
Be upbeat and avoid whining.
Make it a habit to be optimistic.
It’s so simple to sit about and criticize, even if the critiques are justified. We have so many outlets to express our anger and disgust in today’s society: many social media feeds, blogs, websites, online reviews, you name it, we have a way to tell the world how bad someone or some company is. What I’ve discovered is that when I go down that route and start criticizing, it becomes almost addictive. Eventually, the glass is always half-empty, and the majority of people are out to get me. We have control when we take a step back and look at the broader picture. If we continuously criticize, it’s as if we’re pretending that every problem is someone else’s fault rather than our own. I’m a realist, after all. Of course, people make mistakes, and we can spend our time focused on their errors or on finding solutions.
Expect to not become an optimist overnight if you have a pessimistic mindset. However, with practice, your self-talk will become less critical of yourself and more accepting of yourself. You may also lose your ability to be critical of the environment around you.
When you’re in a generally positive frame of mind, you’re better able to deal with everyday stress in a more productive manner. This capacity could play a role in the well-documented health advantages of optimistic thinking. A habit is said to take 21 days to form. I’m not sure that’s quite correct; according to another study conducted by a team at the University College London, it takes around 66 days to become a permanent habit. That appears to be rather accurate to me.
Make optimism a habit and never look back. Replace criticism, whining, and negativity with positivity, empathy, and optimism in your daily life. It’s all too easy to get caught up in our own misery and forget about the people around us. Taking a break from your everyday routine to assist someone else can give you a new perspective and fill you with joy. Every day, try to do one good thing for someone else.
