For sure, you have thought about the importance of being optimistic. While many people have also done the same, “it is better to be realistic”, others still comment. But the point is that being optimistic and being realistic are not necessarily opposing positions.
One can be optimistic and realistic at the same time, although some people will say no. What I see is that we tend to disguise pessimism as realism. We also like to say that whoever is optimistic lives in the clouds. Maybe? Who knows!
Our language invites us.
The previous statements have their logic. It is easier to be pessimistic in our society. Our language is full of sayings that incite us to pessimism. Sayings that invite us to think badly first and see what happens next. “Don’t expect so much”, “don’t ask for too much”, “don’t get too excited”, “better wait for the worst so that you’re amazed if the good comes”.
Many of these constructs have been permeating our minds over time, to the extent that many don’t even allow themselves to dream or imagine a reality different from the one they already know. Many dare not wish for a better reality.
How can you be optimistic?
It is not easy to see life from the point of possibility. When life tests you, when everything gets complicated for you, when you don’t see exits and nothing seems to make sense, you no longer just ask about why being optimistic is important, you also ask about how you can be optimistic in such situations.
Being optimistic doesn’t mean always seeing the world in pink colours. It does not imply unconsciousness about the reality around you. If you allow me, I would say that the term optimism has been very perverted.
As things could be.
Perhaps we could enter into the debate of what optimism means for everyone, make it even more subjective if we want. But we would get lost in a sea of considerations. That is why, today, I can only express what it means for me to be optimistic. Because one thing is to live oblivious to reality, almost unconsciously. Another is to see the world from the point of possibility.
For me, to be optimistic is to be aware of how things are but imagine and see them as they could be. It is to do your part so that they get transformed.
My mother is one of the people who made me develop an optimistic view of life. When facing problems and hard times, she always says that as long as we are alive almost everything has a solution. When you internalize a phrase like this, every time a problem arises, the way you look at it changes. Since I made this phrase also mine, the first thing I see are the possible solutions that depend on me to solve a problem. If not, see who can help me solve it.
Focus on solutions.
I must confess that facing life from the point of possibility brought me more calm. I’ve noticed a huge difference. I used to be more stressed because I focused more on the problem, on what was wrong. Now I get less stressed because I focus on the solution, on what can be better and how I can make it better.
That simple change of perspective might seem insignificant to anyone but to me it made a big difference. If a solution doesn’t depend on me and I don’t find someone who can help me (which has rarely happened), then I leave it in the hands of life. What’s the point of lashing yourself twice? The problem itself is already an inconvenience, mentally lashing out for it doesn’t help.
Being optimistic predisposes you to focus more on solutions. Secondly, it makes you face problems with a better attitude. If you already think that everything is wrong and there is nothing to do, the chances to act accordingly also increase. For this reason, I think that it is better to be optimistic than pessimistic.