Optimism as a way of life

A Pause for Beauty

Something I’ve noticed about friends who live healthy, happy lives into their nineties is their cheerful optimism. They focus on the positive. They have a sense of humor. They tend to be generous, kindhearted people. They tend to be not overly critical of themselves or others. They embrace life in all its beauty, majesty and disappointments.

If you are allowed one wish for your child, seriously consider wishing him or her optimism. Optimists are normally cheerful and happy, and therefore popular; they are resilient in adapting to failures and hardships, their chances of clinical depression are reduced, their immune system is stronger, they take better care of their health, they feel healthier than others and are in fact likely to live longer.
Optimistic individuals play a disproportionate role in shaping our lives. Their decisions make a difference; they are the inventors, the entrepreneurs, the political and military leaders –- not average people. They got to where they are by seeking challenges and taking risks. They are talented and they have been lucky, almost certainly luckier than they acknowledge. . . the people who have the greatest influence on the lives of others are likely to be optimistic and overconfident, and to take more risks than they realize.
      - Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow 

Perhaps some come by their optimism without thought or effort. Walking around the woods I often feel optimistic about the future, at least about the future of nature and its ability to prevail. But in my life, I can tend toward the critical. 

Looking for the positive in situations, in others, is a practice like meditation or journaling are practices. It’s there, it’s just often not right on the surface. 

More here.

For some of my favorite book excerpts on subjects related to the characteristics of survivors including optimism, visit here.

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