Think Positive

I have spent much of my life telling people I was a realist. Truth be known, I have actually spent much of my life as a pessimist. I always expected the worst to happen, the other shoe to drop or things to get messed up. I looked for, and by consequence often found, the things that would continue to fuel this pessimism.

I would tell people that it was better to expect the worst for if it happened, you would be prepared. If something better happened, then you would be all the more happy because you were expecting the worst. It doesn't really work this way. When you expect the worst, you put in less than your best because you don't think you can do it. Why do your best if your best isn't going to change the outcome? Most of us won't. When we expect the worst thing to happen, we convince our mind it will and steal our ability to do great things. By expecting the worst, you also limit the amount of happiness you experience each day. It's hard to be upbeat and happy if you are always waiting for something bad to happen.

If we attack life with a positive outlook, things can be so much different. When we know, not just think, we can do anything, we are more likely to do whatever it takes to make things work. We expect things to work and will put in our best to make it so. When they don't, we are more likely to figure out what went wrong and try again instead of throwing up our hands and saying I knew it wouldn't work. When we expect good things to happen, we spend more time being upbeat and happy, which allows us to roll with the punches and deal with things when they go wrong. It's a cycle that always ends with us being positive and doing our best work.

For many of us, it isn't always easy to come at life from a positive outlook, especially if we have been pessimistic in the past. We have to constantly remind ourselves to not be negative and focus on looking at the good around us instead of the bad. We have to actively work to not complain and try to remind the people around us to be more positive, too. It takes work and it doesn't happen over night, but if we remain conscious to our thoughts and actions, it is possible to move from being a pessimist to an optimist. It is definitely worth the work.