Optimism is a reason to be cheerful

Just Words...

I would imagine that being an eternal optimist must be quite exhausting, bouncing out of bed every morning with surplus energy to attack the day with an endless smile no matter the circumstance.

As someone who always sees the glass as half empty and the hole rather than the doughnut, optimism is company I don’t keep very often.

While others are seizing the day and squeezing every last drop out of it, I would rather avoid it by walking on the other side of the street hoping that fate doesn’t notice me sneaking out the back door.

I’m not saying I want to poison the atmosphere with negative energy, but I am more likely to think of the worstcase scenario rather than believe everything will turn out fine and smelling of strawberries.

If things can go wrong, they usually do, although we usually seem astonished to be dealt the short straw as if there are any other kinds of straws.

Amazingly, people navigate life without fear or trepidation, dodging the curveballs, getting on with the job while always looking on the bright side despite the bumps in the road.

For me the bright side is the dark side, people brimming with optimism emit harmful radiation that tricks us into trusting that everything will be alright on the night – but it never is.

However, there is method in the madness, the positive thinkers among us – those of calm temperament, mild emotions and soothing voices – are wired that way to survive.

New US research has weaponised the optimists by suggesting they are more likely to live longer than those of a negative persuasion – why am I not surprised.

The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests optimists have an 11% to 15% of living longer, with a better chance of making it to 85 and beyond.

Then again if you gave a negative person that extra 15%, they would most probably waste it on sitting in the dark with a drink, avoiding crowds and joyous social occasions.

Who wants to live to be a 100 and miserable during those twilight years, better to be going out with a bang on your own terms before your bits start falling off? That’s nothing to smile about. Most probably all those optimists had a good reason to be, they were most probably wealthy, entitled and in rude health.

There is also good cause to be cynical, cautious and painfully reticent as unrealistic optimism is associated with risk-taking or toxic behaviour.

Sure, we all want to behave as if the dice will always roll for us, oblivious to the many trap doors life has hidden for us, but maybe positive thinking helps us get up for the next fight (hoping to win it of course).

Optimism and cynicism have many shades where the extremes at each end of the spectrum need to be avoided as they are lethal, while mixing positive and negative may place us somewhere closer to reality.

We don’t want to go around being fatalist believing we are doomed no matter what, whereas plunging headfirst into every venture without considering the consequences is also madness.

Nothing is black-and-white, there are grey zones, we can challenge our environment, but we need to find the middle way by hanging around people who are positive in nature to take that negative edge off.

We must also stay positive to achieve our goals while finding encouragement with likeminded people who will support those aims rather than shoot them down.

The research argues that staying positive also enhances problem-solving, lowers depression while making stress easier to manage.

As parents and friends, we should encourage those around us to get out of their fog and do their stuff, not to be afraid to fail or grapple difficult tasks, to have the confidence to make mistakes or be who they want to be.

There is no point painting a dark future for them through negativity, neither should we pretend that being a social animal is plain sailing that comes without pressure.

In time, most people get to understand how the world works and experience usually shapes whether we see things through rose-tinted glasses or with a healthy portion of cynicism that makes us wary of the charlatans selling us the happy pill.

Positivity is not a bad trait but being able to live longer on positive fumes doesn’t mean I’m going to embark on a mission to look on the bright side by listing all the things I should be thankful for or writing my “to do” list.

I respect happy, shiny people, but keep your distance because staying angry is what gets me out of bed in the morning and being mildly surprised when everything doesn’t turn to ***t.