The sweet spot between optimism and pessimism
As I promised in the two articles on the myths of pessimism (I and II), I’ll now tell you which one is better to be; an optimist or a pessimist.
And even though the above phrase might send out the impression that one of them is better than the other, the ’sweet spot’ is a mix of the two; in equal proportions.
Kathy Lette, Australian best-seller novelist, believes that the most successful people are neither extremely optimistic nor extremely pessimistic, but a healthy combination of the two. And I completely agree with her!
However, I find it ironic that almost all self-improvement websites and books talk about creating balanced lifestyles and yet they encourage people to be overly optimistic - which is extremely unbalanced. Isn’t that strange? But I digress.
It feels great to live a well-balanced life! It is wonderful to dream and hope and be merry. It is also wonderful to feel that the world is wicked. We’re only humans and those are human feelings. They simply make their existence felt and create contrasts, so that we can see better.
It’s not a secret that life puts each of us through both good and bad situations.
If we ignore the bad or pretend that it is good, we’re in for an unpleasant surprise; we’ll forget how good feels like. That would be hell on earth.
On the other hand, if we ignore the good and accept only the bad, we’re condemning ourselves to a life of misery in which the end is desired with more passion than that of a child waiting for Santa.
Being optimist and pessimist at the same time means that you should look at both the good and the bad sides of life and then continue on a path that takes them both into consideration.
It can be said that most people are both optimistic and pessimistic, but they’re chaotic in doing so and a chaotic balance is no balance at all.
Look at the bad, get depressed, look for solutions. Look at the good, get happy, enjoy it as much as you can.
“To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.” - Albert Schweizer
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Great website!! Keep up the good work!!