Any Fellow Optimists Out There?

I'm a realist, meaning I look to the possibilities and based on that I draw (or try to draw) a conclusion. =) Sometimes, I'm called optimistic. Sometimes I'm called pessimistic, it depends on the situation. =)

 

You're like my older brother (who is also, funny enough, an ENFP). We have had this conversation many times.

This is my view on optimism/pessimism/realism...

You should always expect, and be prepared for, the worst. Because if the worst does actually happen then your expectations will be met and you will have been prepared. However, if something better than the worst happens, exceeding expectations, then you can be pleasantly surprised, thereby creating a neutral-win outcome. BUT if you expected something good to happen, and something worse actually happened, you would be both crushed by it and unprepared. And if that good thing did happen - like you expected - then it would only result in a "neutral" feeling since your expectations were simply met. This yields a lose-neutral outcome.

Overall, optimism can be good in the sense that it keeps morale high for the present, which may be what is needed in order to prevent bad things from happening in the future. But it is both unreasonable and generally unsatisfying in the long run since it hinges on improbable ideals becoming reality on a regular basis.

Being a realist (or what optimists call a pessimist) doesn't mean you "always think bad things will definitely happen so why bother." I would strongly discourage that attitude. It means that you can hope for the best, while realizing the improbability of that and always having a back-up plan for the more likely scenario - which is the worst.

Hope is something exclusive from either pessimism or optimism. A pessimist is not necessarily less hopeful than an optimist, and vice versa. They are only different in how they perceive their hopes to come about, with the level of likelihood being placed on the good or the bad.

In the end it doesn't matter whether one is a pessimist or an optimist when it comes to their hopes. All that matters is if that person is willing to take the necessary steps to make their hopes come true, regardless of the good/bad situations they are in.

I could go on forever, but here is my bitcoin on the matter.

 

I'm decently optimistic

 

I look at all the bad in the world, realizing it for what it is, and tell myself, "Come on Peter. You are Batman. You can do this." And beat it.

 

Pessimistic optimism and optimistic pessimism for the win.

Ie always expecting the worst so what you get is always better than you expected.

 

I'm optimistic mostly, but other times I'm the worst realist, pessimist ever. I'm a dreamy person so when I get reality checked it really hurts me and puts me in this depressed state where I just hate the world. But I seem to always come back. I just need a spur of love and hope.

 

I once heard someone describe cynicism as the standpoint of a "defeated idealist." The tragedy of the cynic is that the cynic refuses to simply try to reexamine ideals and beliefs that just don't work, and never did they really have a sound foundation.

The original Cynics were just that: they were people whose "morality" would have required us to live like dogs. The founding principles of the Cynical school of thought are sound and related to Stoicism, but it is nevertheless misguided to assume that human beings, who don't live according to an unrealistic and counter-productive standard of morality, have something wrong with them. We are not defective just because we don't live by impossible standards that don't really amount to shit anyway.

For instance, people like ease and convenience. That is simply natural. We browbeat our fellow man for turning instantly to fast-food when they feel hunger. The motive to seek easy fare does not make the human race broken. What is broken is what we put there for them.

People like easy and cool. We started putting brain-boosting vitamins into these things called "energy drinks." You are paying considerably more for your Red Bulls than you would for just taking a multi-vitamin, but it's not bad for you or anything. The vitamins in there are excreted in your urine and don't build up to toxic levels. You'd have to guzzle a six-pack a day, faster than your kidneys could shed the excess, to have any problem related to them. It's easy, it's cool, and it boosts your brain slightly. Even if the drinks did have something wrong with them, it's not the human behavior that is defective, but it is what we put there for them, when they do what we know they are going to do.

A more postmodernist outlook would build around the natural human behavior, channeling it gently toward more health-conscious outcomes.

Therefore, I am sort of an optimist, in my perverse way, but I am an optimist in the sense that I don't decry the world for being what it is. I try to examine my environment, accept it, and capitalize upon it as well as I can, driving it, to the best of my ability, toward my own goals.

I have bad things happen to me, but I don't (or try not to) raise my head and cry, to the universe, "Why? Why me?" I embrace what is there, as well as I can, dig in, and battle my way back to a state of peace. To do otherwise is madness. What makes me an optimist is that I am determined that I am going to be happy, regardless of the crap, substandard material that has been thrown to me in order to do it with.

 

I'm an optimist for the most part. Otherwise I'd probably have thrown myself in front of a bus by now.

 

"Optimism always starts with acknowledging the reality of the situation and then focusing on the premise “everything happens for the best.” Even tragedy can be placed in the context of focusing on the good that can come from it. Katrina and 911 and other terrible events all have gifts and benefits that we can learn from to make future catastrophes less terrible.

Aggravations can be improved by focusing on two or three good things that are connected with results. Ask yourself what are two good things that can come of failing an exam, losing your luggage, missing the bus, too much rain and so on. This exercise will bring positive outcomes no matter what occurs.

Optimists by definition focus on options, problem-solving, goal-setting, moving forward, letting go and forgiveness, resiliency and flexibility, making the best of a bad situation, have mature responses: the list is endless." (via)

By this interpretation, I like to think I'm an optimist.

To me, optimism and pessimism have nothing to do with expectations for the future or what might happen, only how we view the things that do happen.

 

I try to be an optimist, but I think a lot of the crap that has gone on in the world has made me cynical.

 

*glances at user title*

Need I even go into any detail?

I consider myself as seeing things in a more realistic light though, rather than outright pessimism.

 

I'm anything but a realist. I try to be an optimist.

 

I'm typically a pessimist or a realist or whatever but when it comes to cheering people up I can get optimistic -- maybe because I'm much more confident in other people than myself.

 

Ask me on my up-swing days, totally!

Ask me on my down-swing days, please do add another option below the lowest one.

 

Yes, I'm usually unhealthily optimistic.... but then once in a while I go through really pessimistic/hopeless periods (usually short lived though).