“You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down”
― Charles Chaplin
Now , i am self confessed pessimist.Most of my friends know this and tease me about it.It all started with a personality development class which happened in first semester of college.We enrolled basically to kill sometime.I chap as usual asked , showing a glass which was half filled.Anyways, he was very irritating...kept asking "what do you see?" for about 15-20 minutes.I finally responded, i see half empty glass, you can imagine the flow after that.I was the class guinea pig after that and was termed as "pessimist " etc etc..
As per wikipedia its "Pessimism is a state of mind in which one anticipates undesirable outcomes or believes that the evil or hardships in life outweigh the good or luxuries. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?" situation.
There's a more than just one type of optimist or pessimist.I just randomly had googled in college days after that as that session kinda depressed me (being the target of a session where you paid and went!sigh..after that no more soft skills till i started working).Anyways ,here are a few.
Optimistic pessimism:
Telling yourself that the outcome of a situation will undoubtedly be pleasant; when knowing that the truth is that it will not, so that your artificial smile and laughter will not and cannot be undistinguished between true and false.Well, sounds complex, basically leading a life with cliche phrases like "every cloud has a silver lining" and living in cockoo land.
Trait or dispositional optimism and pessimism, which is a chronic tendency to have positive or negative expectations;
Explanatory optimism/pessimism, which is a way of explaining why bad things occur (optimists would blame external factors, while pessimists would blame themselves);
Defensive pessimism, a strategy for handling anxiety that involves lowering expectations;
Strategic optimism, in which people focus on positive things when faced with an anxiety-provoking even
Now, these are making my blog look like a textbook.But,now these make you think which is better optimism or pessimism. You will find hundreds of articles about this.Some say extreme of either is not good.Being too optimistic makes you weak and you dream about the positive outcome.Extreme pessimism makes you complacent and you get into "its bound to fail , why try?" .I think as long as you know to balance these and have set your priorities right, you won't have any issues.
I might be a pessimistic optimist, and I take it as a compliment now, because it’s that pessimism which has allowed me to accept and endure tough spells in life to push through to the other side. If I didn’t get my mind ready to tackle a big problem, how would I keep my composure to face it? Instead I hope for the best but expect the worst. This old saying perfectly captures how a pessimistic person approaches life.But, we should be balanced enough to count our blessings .With that note i leave you to take the test to see where you fall.
http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=1320
Mine is here!!Its interesting and not that bad!
― Charles Chaplin
Now , i am self confessed pessimist.Most of my friends know this and tease me about it.It all started with a personality development class which happened in first semester of college.We enrolled basically to kill sometime.I chap as usual asked , showing a glass which was half filled.Anyways, he was very irritating...kept asking "what do you see?" for about 15-20 minutes.I finally responded, i see half empty glass, you can imagine the flow after that.I was the class guinea pig after that and was termed as "pessimist " etc etc..
As per wikipedia its "Pessimism is a state of mind in which one anticipates undesirable outcomes or believes that the evil or hardships in life outweigh the good or luxuries. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?" situation.
There's a more than just one type of optimist or pessimist.I just randomly had googled in college days after that as that session kinda depressed me (being the target of a session where you paid and went!sigh..after that no more soft skills till i started working).Anyways ,here are a few.
Optimistic pessimism:
Telling yourself that the outcome of a situation will undoubtedly be pleasant; when knowing that the truth is that it will not, so that your artificial smile and laughter will not and cannot be undistinguished between true and false.Well, sounds complex, basically leading a life with cliche phrases like "every cloud has a silver lining" and living in cockoo land.
Trait or dispositional optimism and pessimism, which is a chronic tendency to have positive or negative expectations;
Explanatory optimism/pessimism, which is a way of explaining why bad things occur (optimists would blame external factors, while pessimists would blame themselves);
Defensive pessimism, a strategy for handling anxiety that involves lowering expectations;
Strategic optimism, in which people focus on positive things when faced with an anxiety-provoking even
Now, these are making my blog look like a textbook.But,now these make you think which is better optimism or pessimism. You will find hundreds of articles about this.Some say extreme of either is not good.Being too optimistic makes you weak and you dream about the positive outcome.Extreme pessimism makes you complacent and you get into "its bound to fail , why try?" .I think as long as you know to balance these and have set your priorities right, you won't have any issues.
I might be a pessimistic optimist, and I take it as a compliment now, because it’s that pessimism which has allowed me to accept and endure tough spells in life to push through to the other side. If I didn’t get my mind ready to tackle a big problem, how would I keep my composure to face it? Instead I hope for the best but expect the worst. This old saying perfectly captures how a pessimistic person approaches life.But, we should be balanced enough to count our blessings .With that note i leave you to take the test to see where you fall.
http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=1320
Mine is here!!Its interesting and not that bad!
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