Optimism Research Paper

Looking on the "brighter side" of things encourages positive attitudes as well as positive behavior. Shay Carl is a YouTube personality whom I've watched constantly for self motivation, he turned his life around through making the personal choice to wake up everyday and smile, and to look at himself in the mirror and flaunt his features instead of being ashamed to take his shirt off at the beach. At age 25 he weighed 350 pounds. Everyday he looked at himself with shame and disgust, he refused to allow positivity into his life because he believed there was nothing positive about himself that needed praise. One day he decided to stop the pity and to be happy even when he didn't want to, even when life would through massive curve balls at him, he was optimistic at all costs. He lost 200 pounds and had 5 kids. Carl posted daily videos of his progress in hopes to inspire other to follow in his footsteps. With over 4 million subscribes, he managed to create a unity of positive people with the same hopes as he did; to change their lives simply by choosing happiness. A positive attitude leads to a positive life. There are numerous aspects to being an optimist, and making the personal choice to be happy is only the first step to

Notwithstanding the numerous advantages of pessimism, proven by studies, society continues to condemn it. This is particularly due to the fact that optimism is viewed as more superior, compared to pessimism. Author, Jon Gordon, reports, “‘Whether we feed ourselves each day with negative fuel or positive fuel … our optimism has a big impact on our day’” (Gordon). Gordon conveys the fact that, ultimately, optimism determines success, not pessimism. Additionally, Adam Sinicki, a psychology graduate, comments that remaining optimistic during strenuous times will help alleviate the situation because an individual is believing that matters will only mend (Sinicki). While there may be research to support these claims, the truth is, they fail to shed

inspiration and optimism comes in to play. A person can find hope when thinking about the

For many, pessimism is not ideal, and optimism is their route of choice, as it develops through the arising

like not being able to recognize failure, which results in the loss of purpose as well as the loss of willingness to improve. By not being able to deal with failure, one’s life can be put to a stop and lead them on a bad path. One must be able to recover from failure and see that failure is only a stepping stone to a better and brighter future. Failure is difficult to recover from and often leads to more failure, but it is not impossible to recover from. With resilience and drive, a person who understands what failure is, is able to conquer it.

In this modern world, hope can be hard to come by. Everyday a new tragedy is on the news, another country attacked it’s neighbor, there was another terrorist attack, etc. However, living

’s quote, “People will fail to display the virtue of hope if they lack the confidence and hopefulness to embark on projects whose success cannot be guaranteed (136). The thing that makes hope so great is that failure is just as evident as hope is, however, most people look to choose hope to motivate them rather than

     In Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, the narrator, Sal Paradise offers up to us what seems to be a very optimistic view on life. He is forever singing the praises of how wonderful his adventures will be and his high expectations for the future. To Sal, the novel is defined by youthful exuberance and unabashed optimism for the new experiences that he sets out to find. A deeper look into the novel, as well as a look at some of the critics who have written on it, reveals a much darker side, a more pessimistic and sad aspect that Sal simply fails to realize until the very close of the action. Whether Sal is hopped up on the optimism of jazz music, secure in his belief that he is off to find ‘IT,’ or just excited

Candide, by Voltaire, is a satire written based on the people, events, and thoughts of the 1750s and was published in France, Italy, and the Netherlands. These included Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, most religious groups, the earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, and the idea of Optimism presented by many philosophers. The idea of Optimism is based on the idea presented by most religious figures, that God is here and perfect, therefore anything that happens in life is there for a reason and not just a mistake made by God. The journey of Candide starts with what seems to be an innocent kiss shared between the beautiful Cunegonde, this is what truly starts Candide’s belief in Optimism as presented by his teacher Pangloss. Only moments later they are

But, a lot of people can find this question difficult to answer due to the fact that there are quite a few things that factor into one’s level of happiness. In Jonathan Haidt’s, The Happiness Hypothesis, Haidt introduces the “happiness formula”, H=S+C+V, that psychologists Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ken Sheldon, and David Schkade created that contains the three main factors in one’s happiness. This formula determines the level of happiness I actually experience in my life through my biological set

Certainly is the absence of not knowing the occurrence of circumstances surrounding an event or state of being, so we know I am uncertain about whether you slept soundly. Hope is a desire in conjunction with the belief in the possibility of an event or a state of being will happen, now both you and me know the meanings of certainty and hope (smile). I hope you had a restful and reinvigorating sleep. Enjoy today's adventure!

Last but not least, we have hope, another trait Colin Wilson forgot to mention. We all have it, and most days we use it. There are many people that feel like they have nothing, then they start having hope that it will all change. Some people get hope later than others, but once you have it; It’s not going away. We all have hope that we can get through the hard times, and make it better. Obviously, you need a little bit of hope, to make your life a little better.

Optimism is a mental attitude or world view that interprets situations and events as being best (optimized), meaning that in some way for factors that may not be fully comprehended, the present moment is in an optimum state. The concept is typically extended to include the attitude of hope for future conditions unfolding as optimal as well. The more broad concept of optimism is the understanding that all of nature, past, present and future, operates by laws of optimization along the lines of Hamilton's principle of optimization in the realm of physics. This understanding, although criticized by counter views such as pessimism, idealism and realism, leads to a state of mind that

Being optimistic is the main principle for most people. We may often hear the statement about “be an optimist, not a pessimist!” shouted by people. Sometimes you do it for yourself too. When facing such a failure or problem, this will not only help to relieve your heart. Being optimistic will help someone to be healthy in physical and mental. An optimist will find the best way in any circumstance and hope for every good thing can come to him/her. You may have gone through thousands of hard times. However, if you are a born optimist then you will not care of anything destructing you.

Despite race, religion, sex, or age the world can be divided into two different groups. Those who see the glass as being half full and those who see the glass as being half empty. In other words, being either that of an optimist or a pessimist. Though a simple question, often times people find it difficult to answer. Just when one thinks they have decided that they are one or the other, they come across a song, poem, or an experience that makes them reevaluate the mind frame from that which they have normally embraced. T. S. Eliot’s famous quote from The Waste Land, "I can show you fear in a handful of dust," is one that has been the trigger, for many, in this self-evaluation process (1.30)