Magical realism

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Either way, research shows you can benefit from learning to take a more realistic, grounded view, as Hazel Davies discovers

HI was living with my parents in Kent at the age of 18. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, no plan B and no wealthy benefactors to lend a hand. So I did what any sane person would do – I called the tourist board of a remote Scottish island and asked whether they knew of a farmer who would take me in as a worker in exchange for board and lodging. It happened in books, so why not to me?

Most called it idiocy, others warned me I’d be murdered within a fortnight. I like to think of it as the perfect example of my optimistic nature at work. The stunt worked out fine – in fact, it was life-changing in all the right ways. But I knew it would be. I’ve always been an optimist to the point of Pollyanna. When I quit my PHD and decided to write for free for a local listings magazine, I knew that things would eventually work out. My optimism is the reason I’m writing this in a West Yorkshire garden in bright sunshine.

Not all my friends share my optimism. One is still working her way through the dried beans she panic-bought a year ago when Covid appeared. Another talks about all the things she’d love to do but never will because ‘things just don’t work out well for me, like they do for you and other people’.

I regard what she says with sadness. I am certain she thinks about my behaviour with