The pessimist persists
I have spent a great deal of my life as a pessimist, definitely a glass half empty kind of person. Recently I have had a lot of great things happen in my life: I am living part of my dream by recently moving to a small mountain town, I have a 17 month old son, and I am more financially stable than I have ever been before. However, even with all of these positives I still tend to drift towards the negative side of things too quickly when something goes wrong.
The pessimist can help
This is something I have started to work on aggressively in my life and in this past year and a half I have started to achieve some success towards this goal, but I found, in most cases, that the pessimist was still there. I have read positive thinking books, success books, and books on coaching and all have helped me to improve my outlook when things go south. Yet still, he was always there, the pessimist never left. So, in a way, I gave up and the pessimist gets to stay, but I have managed to trick him, because now, the pessimist doesn’t work against my positive thinking, he helps out.
Using pessimism to become positive
How? Now, whenever I am faced with a situation that is getting me down and I have a choice between going the route of the optimist or the pessimist I try to look at the situation from both perspectives. I allow the pessimist to have a look and comment, but then, I give the optimist a chance to give some input. In most cases, and it gets better as I use it more often, by comparing the pessimist’s view with the optimist’s view I realize that going the route of the pessimist is a waste of my time and that everything will move forward more quickly, or resolve itself if I follow the path of the optimist.
Pessimist - Optimist table
If I have time I actually write each perspective down so that I can see my choices on paper. For me, as a very visual person, this makes the two choices much more real, much more concrete and easier to see the difference between my choices. However, I can’t always put words to paper when the negative comes knocking so I complete the exercise in my head.
It is quite simple, I just fill out my Pessimist-Optimist Table by answering the following questions side by side:
What would the pessimist do in this situation?What do I gain from following the pessimist?What do I lose by following the pessimist?
What would the optimist do in this situation?What do I gain from following the optimist?What do I lose from following the optimist?
Optimism hasn’t lost yet
The questions are definitely weighted against the pessimist, but that is the point. By quickly running through the exercise in my head I can change my outlook on a situation and respond in a much healthier and positive fashion. For larger decisions or situations I can take the time to write my thoughts out and show myself clearly that the path of the optimist is always a better choice. I am not perfect by any means, and sometimes the pessimist still blindsides me and gets to run the show, but, slowly, I am making a move towards being an optimist.
I would love to hear what tools or tricks you use to change perspective?
I have spent a great deal of my life as a pessimist, definitely a glass half empty kind of person. Recently I have had a lot of great things happen in my life: I am living part of my dream by recently moving to a small mountain town, I have a 17 month old son, and I am more financially stable than I have ever been before. However, even with all of these positives I still tend to drift towards the negative side of things too quickly when something goes wrong.
The pessimist can help
This is something I have started to work on aggressively in my life and in this past year and a half I have started to achieve some success towards this goal, but I found, in most cases, that the pessimist was still there. I have read positive thinking books, success books, and books on coaching and all have helped me to improve my outlook when things go south. Yet still, he was always there, the pessimist never left. So, in a way, I gave up and the pessimist gets to stay, but I have managed to trick him, because now, the pessimist doesn’t work against my positive thinking, he helps out.
Using pessimism to become positive
How? Now, whenever I am faced with a situation that is getting me down and I have a choice between going the route of the optimist or the pessimist I try to look at the situation from both perspectives. I allow the pessimist to have a look and comment, but then, I give the optimist a chance to give some input. In most cases, and it gets better as I use it more often, by comparing the pessimist’s view with the optimist’s view I realize that going the route of the pessimist is a waste of my time and that everything will move forward more quickly, or resolve itself if I follow the path of the optimist.
Pessimist - Optimist table
If I have time I actually write each perspective down so that I can see my choices on paper. For me, as a very visual person, this makes the two choices much more real, much more concrete and easier to see the difference between my choices. However, I can’t always put words to paper when the negative comes knocking so I complete the exercise in my head.
It is quite simple, I just fill out my Pessimist-Optimist Table by answering the following questions side by side:
What would the pessimist do in this situation?What do I gain from following the pessimist?What do I lose by following the pessimist?
What would the optimist do in this situation?What do I gain from following the optimist?What do I lose from following the optimist?
Optimism hasn’t lost yet
The questions are definitely weighted against the pessimist, but that is the point. By quickly running through the exercise in my head I can change my outlook on a situation and respond in a much healthier and positive fashion. For larger decisions or situations I can take the time to write my thoughts out and show myself clearly that the path of the optimist is always a better choice. I am not perfect by any means, and sometimes the pessimist still blindsides me and gets to run the show, but, slowly, I am making a move towards being an optimist.
I would love to hear what tools or tricks you use to change perspective?
Source: Sundaynightsuccess
No comments:
Post a Comment