Personal Growth Tips

Even if there are debates if optimism is a shallow and naive outlook on life or not, there are many proofs that optimistic approach of life has many positive effects. It has many positive effects in contrast with the pessimistic approach, which has many negative effects. Also it has more positive results in comparison with another highly appreciated approach - the realistic outlook on life. And this fact makes optimistic thinking the best option we can make, in all areas of our life.

The question is: What makes you optimistic?! If we agree that this is the way to go, the next step is to understand what makes you think optimistically, what is strongly associated with being optimistic?

Health Level

There is a direct correlation between your level of health and your level of optimism. In general, physical and mental healthy people are more optimistic than those which have problems of health. But there are exceptions too; some physical and mental impaired people show a healthy dose of optimism and hope.

Due to the strong mind-body connection, here appears a circle of determination: the healthier you are, the more optimistic you’ll be, and the more optimistic you become, the healthier you’ll be.

Age Level

There is a general opinion that young people are more optimistic than old people, and studies prove this. This happens because young people think they have a whole life in the front of them and have a lot of positive expectations from this. Old people generally think that their life is close to the end, and so they have no more expectations and hope from this life.

Even so, in old people the optimism live when their mental age is younger than their physical age, and also when they hope in a positive after-life.

Physical Activity

It is well established that physical activity boosts your subjective well-being. The same thing happens with your level of optimism. Physically active people are more optimistic than physically passive people. This happens due to power of body over mind (the physical and chemical processes that physical activity produces in the brain).

Here we talk about two kinds of physical activity: the physical activity due to the nature of your work and physical activity through exercise. Both boost your optimism level.

Social Activity and Relationships

There must be equilibrium between two conflicting kinds of needs: the need for loneliness and the need for social interaction. We sometimes need to be alone and other times to talk and interact with others.

A rich social activity and quality social relationships correlate highly with a high level of optimism. Being among others and positively interacting with them make us feel better, have confidence and hope in ourselves and others.

Others may influence your life very much, so you have to pay attention when you chose your pals and friends. However, much more affect your life the way you manage your interaction with others, how you perceive others and how you relate with them.

Mental Activity and Education

Higher scores of optimism are associated with being better educated. Even if there are some that say that a high level of education makes you more realistic not more optimistic, there are reasons to think that a high educated person will integrate the realistic viewpoint in an optimistic approach of life. Mainly, because an educated person is pragmatic and so will make the difference between usefulness of optimism and accuracy of realism, integrating them in the long run of achievement and success.

Another aspect of mental activity is if its tone is predominant positive and so optimistic or negative and so pessimistic. Here, the main role plays your power and ability to monitor, change or replace our negative beliefs, values, attitudes and thoughts.

If you have noticed, the activity is a key factor in the causal process of optimistic thinking. What do you think about “being optimistic”? How do you maintain your level of optimism?

Our imagination is a powerful psychological tool. This tool may work for our bad, if we aren’t conscious about its power and its activity. We can use this tool for our good, if we understand its power and discipline this power.

If you ask people what they wish, they’ll focus mostly on what they doesn’t have rather than what they have yet (they doesn’t wish anymore what they have yet). In the same way, many people tend to ignore what is good in their life and notice only what go bad.

Most of the couples don’t feel as happy as at the beginning of their relationship, because of this kind of thinking.

Many people use their imagination selectively. They use it to visualize only those events that make them feel bad. Instead of waiting until they discover proofs that their partner has an affair, some even begin to imagine their lover having an affair. This is a very effective way to become jealous and make your and your partner life a nightmare.

As a consequence of this negative and selective use of mental visualization you’ll get a bad disposition, begin making critics and reproaches, then nagging or even estranging from your partner. Therefore, as a consequence of this consequence, what you have imagined become reality. This is called a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tip: It would be more constructive to select or create (with the power of your mental visualization) positive thoughts and images, in which you and your partner are feeling well. In this way you may build a positive self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are two situations when the optimism may be seen as a naive outlook.

First, when the optimism is defined as a doctrine. The doctrine of Leibniz, which say that we live in the best of all possible worlds.

Now, if you look at reality in a realistically way, you’ll see that the saying of Leibniz isn’t the truth in itself. That there are so many problems in this world that may prevent you to say that the existing world is the best of all possible worlds.

Even more, if you watch TV news or read newspapers, you’ll be more inclined to say not only that this world isn’t the best, but it seems the worst of all possible worlds.

Therefore, we can say that our viewpoint may be subjective, contextual and influenced by many factors. When the optimism is defined as the doctrine that the existing world is the best of all possible worlds, we may say that the optimism is a naive and shallow outlook that don’t reflect the reality as it is.

Second, when the optimism is seen as a cheap form of positive thinking. This means that you have to repeat parrot-like positive sentences (”Yes, all is good!”), when the things go bad. It may be a kind of denying reality.

When the optimism is seen so, it can be very easy labeled as a naive and shallow outlook.

My position

We don’t live in the best of all possible worlds, but we will try to make our world better, only if we think optimistically. A pessimistic thinking is fatalistic and gives up improving process. Optimists simply refuse to give up when are confronted with an adverse reality.

Optimists are motivated to try improving something because they assume “I can do something to change this”.

Therefore, the optimism isn’t about accuracy in evaluating the reality, but it’s all about usefulness and efficiency in changing the reality. Even so, we don’t have to deny the reality (saying that “all is good”, when the things go bad), but we have to believe that a negative reality may be improved and changed for better, if we truly want it.

In conclusion, I can say that the optimism is a productive and deep outlook on life.

Our daily life begins, progress and end on a “psychological background”. Through “psychological background” I mean all our daily thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that don’t play the leading part of our day, but the second one. They are in the background, not in the spotlight, of our daily buzz, but this doesn’t mean they are less important. These thoughts, beliefs and attitudes are critical for our daily moods. As a puppeteer handle the strings of the puppets to animate and control them, in the same way our background thoughts handle our main ones.

The thoughts, attitudes and beliefs that form our daily “psychological background” aren’t voluntary ones. We don’t consciously intend to think one of them; they are, most of the time, involuntary, automated and unconscious processes of our mind. Even more, many of them are post-voluntary. This means they were, in our past, voluntary and conscious thoughts that we allowed to run in our mind.

We can talk about three kinds of “psychological background”:

Default “Psychological Background”

I call it default because of its regular presence in our daily life. It is established in time, in a less or more unconscious way, and is made up by all daily thoughts, beliefs and attitudes we used regularly in our past. This kind of background thoughts is very important because these thoughts repeat day-by-day. Therefore, they affect our life daily.

Contextual “Psychological Background”

Through contextual “psychological background” I refer to those background thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that are not a constant presence in our daily life, they appear due to some contextual events. They may disappear suddenly as they appeared, if they don’t find a proper medium to stick and develop. Or they may persist and develop, over the time, into default processes of our mind, if we allow them to run again and again.

We must be aware of this process and analyze what background thoughts some events caused in our mind. Then we must allow those that are positive and benefic to stick and develop. And fight, change or reject those that are negative and destructive for us and for the others.

Optimized “Psychological Background”

Even if our default “psychological background” was installed day-by-day in an unconscious way, this doesn’t mean it is forever. It can be optimized.

This is the magic of personal growth process - we have the power to play constructively with the code (background thoughts, beliefs and attitudes) of our mind. We may improve, optimize and build an optimal mind and through it a successful life.

Be aware! Our today thoughts, beliefs and attitudes not only determine our today mood, but they build our tomorrow “psychological background”.