One of my most favourite magazines in the world is a French language one entitled “Cles“. In the current issue they have a theme about optimism.
I love their exploration of the different ways of understanding the thinking patterns of optimists and pessimists. They quote Winston Churchill, who famously said
“The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity.”
The introductory article says
L’optimiste relativise ses echecs (je ferais mieux la prochaine fois) et generalise ses succes (j’ai vraiment de la chance), alors que le pessimiste generalise ses echecs (je suis decidement un nul) et relativise ses succes (c’etait juste un coup de bol)
Here’s my translation (I’m not an expert!) – The optimist puts his failures/setbacks into perspective – “I will do better next time” and generalises his successes – “I’m really lucky”, whereas the pessimist generalises his failures/setbacks – “I’m really an idiot” and relativises his successes – “It was just a stroke of luck”.
I think one of the interesting things about thought frameworks is how they tend to create the outcomes expected, so we really do find that some people are generally luckier than others. Can you just decide to become more optimistic? I don’t want to over-simplify this, but, yes, I think you can (but then I would, wouldn’t I? I’m an optimist!!).
The issue of “Cles”, explores the “science of optimism” – now there’s a scientific discipline I’d be keen to know more about…..
They suggest the “golden rules” revealed by the science of optimism include the importance of “vigilance” – attentiveness; curiosity; the “capacite a rebondir” – the capacity to bounce back, or to be resilient; and, altruism.
What do you think? What qualities facilitate the tendency to optimism?
The pessimist is the one, who from two possibilities to fail chooses two.
Huge swathes of Scotland seems to thrive on pessimism , sometimes its artistic form can be wonderful ,none better than the Wee book of Calvin, a priceless insight to times gone by and times not so old ……..http://www.economist.com/node/3353670
This is a wonderful list! Also, while rather cliche, I find the half-glass of water noted as the “half-empty” by the pessimist and “half-full” by the optimist noteworthy on many occasions! I also notice that many people think that a pessimist and a skeptic are similar, where I disagree with this. A skeptic in the true sense does their best to be neutral, while a pessimist already has negative programming operational from the start! 😉