The Importance Of Pessimism

In the words of Winston Churchill, "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." When we are optimistic that we can get a job done, or that we can find a cure for a disease, we are more motivated, and we work harder. A scientist who is pessimistic that they will never find a cure for a specific disease will have a mental mind block against finding a cure for a disease, making it considerably harder for them to find a cure. However, a scientist who is optimistic about finding a cure for a disease will be motivated and more focused on their dedication to discovering a cure for a disease such as cancer. When you are optimistic, you are more motivated, and when you are motivated, you are more productive, consequently making optimism a particularly important priority in everyday

In the same way that hope has colored the past, optimism and positive thinking has the ability to affect present situations. When enduring struggles or facing fears, hope can provide feelings of comfort. It can be used as a coping mechanism. Maya Angelou relates a tone of satisfaction when she weighs the conditions of her life

An article written by Kendra Cherry states, “By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of terrible events, people can reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future” (Cherry). Optimism has allowed for people to deal with conflicts in a healthy way. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot in her book The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope argues that optimism provides an adaptive advantage. According to her, “Expecting our future to be good reduces stress and anxiety, which is good for our health. Researchers studying heart attack patients have found that optimists were more likely than nonoptimistic patients to take vitamins, eat low-fat diets, and exercise, thereby reducing their overall coronary risk” (Popova). Dealing with conflicts positively is better for your health and it decreases bad health

In his article, The Power of Negative Thinking, Oliver Burkeman discusses the realities behind excessive optimism and the benefits to negative thinking. Specifically, Burkeman argues that positive thinking hinders the preparation and motivation necessary to tackle actual real world problems whereas negative thinking allows for such preparation. His argument’s strengths come from his constant use of logic in regards to his evidence whether it be the “fire walkers” in the first paragraph or the opinions of Barbara Ehrenreich in the paragraph nine. In short, Burkeman does a superb job of championing the benefits of pessimism through his criticism on positive thinking.

Scientists have begun to realize that positive thinking can not only help during conflicts,but during everyday life. An article from the Huffington Post gives insight into this,”The benefits of positive emotions don’t stop after a few minutes of good feelings subside. In fact, the biggest benefit that positive emotions provide is an enhanced ability to build skills and develop resources for use later in life” (Clear). James Clear (taking insight for notable psychology experts) explains how positivity improves emotion and life quality. He also states that positivity is a useful resource in all social situations as well as

In this Ted Talk cognitive neuroscientist Tali Sharot shared with us the concept of optimism bias and the research that she has been doing on the very topic. She spoke about it as being an illusion. Her description of optimism bias is that we tend to think we will have more positive things happen in our life than bad one. We overestimate the good and underestimate the bad. Optimism bias is something that people throughout the world experience from young to old people. She gave marriage as an example of this kind of bias and stated that forty percent of people that get married will get a divorce but people who just got married will say that there it is unlikely they will end up divorcing. Despite the facts people

Many believe that you can only be optimistic if you are successful, as good things happening to you can cause a better mood. However, Seligman believed the opposite. He thought that having an optimistic outlook creates success. Things cannot go well for you if you always think on the bad side of things, therefore, if you are more optimistic, you will be able to bounce back faster from hardship and be more able to become successful once again. However, pessimism can also be learned. If a person believes that everything bad that happens is their fault, they will become more pessimistic and unwilling to try new things, as they believe they will mess up. This thought can be taught in young children. Often, children who are abused or bullied at a young age can develop a pessimistic outlook as they are told that bad events are their

False optimism, based off the argument of religion, is flawed because it causes people to create excuses. The argument for false optimism based off religion is depicted in “The Worst of All Possible Worlds” where it reads,”The overly optimistic views of these philosophers are based off the religious views they have,”(Morassutti 1). Although it is not right to argue and say one religion is wrong, it is justified to say that religions can be taken too far. The belief that everything that happens is good takes religion too far, because it just causes excuses to be made. People do not have to take responsibility for their actions, because they are all good in their mind. Or no matter how bad their actions are they can still be depicted as good to themselves, through the already mentioned delusion cause by false positivity towards everything. Furthermore, the argument that fake optimism allows people to overcome character flaws is false because it really is just a mask for them. The argument for fraudulent optimism helping people get past personal or characteristic problems is brought up in “For The Gipper”, where it states,”It’s not a virtue but a temperament, and liberal pragmatists from John Dewey to Richard Rorty for years have tried to reduce all philosophical disagreements to matters of temperament,”(Kesler 1). The fact

When it comes to people and their attitudes towards the world, there is a wide spectrum ranging from an immensely pessimistic mindset to an extremely optimistic one. Some people can be very cynical, distrusting society and assuming the worst in everyone, while others can be too idealistic, believing that anything is possible and that every problem can be resolved in the end. Of course, people can also follow an unequal blend of these ideologies. There are pessimistic people who still hold onto some shreds of hope, and there are idealistic people who carry a “healthy dose of skepticism” with them at all times. Either way, they tend to lean towards one side more than the other. After all, it is difficult for them to be exactly in between

An article written by Barbara Enhrenreich – “The Power of Negative Thinking” was published in New York Times in September 2008, a hard time otherwise known economic collapse of the World. Enhrenreich writes that greed and speculation are the two phenomenon responsible for the crisis. Enhrenreich defines positive thinking at a time as a “delusional optimism”, effect of which was over exaggerated and overvalued, “Positive thinking is endemic to academic culture – from weight loss programs to cancer support groups – and in the last two decades it has put down deep roots in the corporate world as well.” (Enhrenreich 270) Most importantly, Enhrenreich claims that Americans were not “deluded optimists” in the past. Visualizing success in her opinion became the guiding tool of a time. As summarized by Peter Theil in his book Zero to One, Americans were in a state of definite optimism up to 1980. Later, it has turned into indefinite optimism where

When I was in year four, my class did a unit on Optimism. Our Spanish teacher would come to our class and talk about all the reasons why we should be optimistic, and how it would help us later on in life. In the novella Candide, by Voltaire, the title character is also taught to be optimistic by his teacher Dr. Pangloss, who maintains that all things happen for the best of purposes and reasons. In Candide Voltaire asks us if it is wise to so strongly live by that position of extreme optimism, (or even any position at all).

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.

Optimists and pessimists look at the world and life in very different ways. It’s factual that optimism and pessimism are both views, however, that’s where the similarities ultimately end, and the differences start to show. Optimists look at the world and life with joy, heart, and determination, and pessimists, people who see the world and life negatively, just can’t seem to muster the sort of positivity that optimists have. The differences between the two views is most commonly seen when it comes to romantic relationships, school, and work.

“A useful definition of optimism was offered by anthropologist (Peterson, C. (2000). Lionel Tiger (1979): “a mood or attitude associated with an expectation about the social or material future one which the evaluator regards as socially desirable to his [or her] advantage, or for his [or her] pleasure”. The basic stance of Lionel Tiger’s definition of optimism is that there is no single or objective optimism at least not as characterized by its content (Tiger, L. 1993). What the individual deems desirable it what optimism is considered to be. Lionel goes on to explain how “Emotional Flavor” must be included in the context, and real world examples must also be considered, such as how an individual was feeling on any particular day, or how pessimistic that might be as a person (Tiger, L. 1993). An example listed by Lionel in the real world is two college roommates. One roommate is more emotionally

Optimistic and pessimistic attitudes constantly affect the outcome of people's lives. In my life, I try to keep an optimistic attitude about the things I do because I know it will help lead me to more desirable ends. There have been many situations in which optimism has helped me through difficult times. Two areas in particular have provided me optimistic experiences: athletics