Choosing to Live Your Best Life

Every day of our lives we are faced with choices. It’s entirely up to each of us whether we choose a pessimist’s view and end up living a self-defeated life, or to take the optimistic route and create a challenging and fulfilling life.

Optimism has been linked to positive mood and good morale; to academic, athletic, military, occupational and political success; to popularity; to good health and even to long life and freedom from trauma.

OPTIMISTS EXPECT THE BEST

The defining characteristic of a pessimist is that they tend to expect worst case scenarios throughout life, effectively undermining their own efforts, in the process creating a self fulfilling prophecy of defeat.

The truth is optimists are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world. What differs is they tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback. As one of my favorite motivational speakers, W. Mitchell always says, “It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it.”

Optimists are also more proactive and less dependent on others for their happiness. They find no need to control or manipulate people. In fact people are drawn to them because their optimistic view of the world can be contagious and positively influence those around them.

OPTIMISTS ARE HEALTHIER AND LIVE LONGER

Medical research has confirmed that simple pleasures and a positive outlook can cause a measurable increase in the body's ability to fight disease.

OPTIMISTIC THINKING CAN BE LEARNED

Fortunately patterns of optimistic thinking can be learned to a degree (though we tend to be mostly predisposed to our patterns of thinking.) You can help yourself and others become more optimistic by consciously challenging negative, self-limiting thinking and replacing it with more optimistic thought patterns.

FOCUS ON THE POSSIBILITIES, NOT THE IMPOSSIBILITIES

People become pessimistic when they focus their mind on the impossibilities. All they see is the enormity of the challenges ahead. Their mind becomes overwhelmed by the difficulties and they can no longer see themselves winning in a situation. So focus your mind instead on the possibilities and how you can go through all these and be a winner.

READ INSPIRING STORIES

To help you focus on the possibilities, try reading inspiring stories of the people who have overcome great obstacles to succeed. It will inspire you since you know that other people did it despite the challenges they faced. Just like you, they also faced enormous difficulties, but they persisted and achieved their dream. So can you.

GET RID OF NEGATIVE WORDS AND SELF-TALK

Nothing takes your optimism away faster than negative words or negative self-talk. Seeing the positive side of things may be difficult at first, but the more you practice speaking about hope and possibilities the easier it will become, and the better you will feel. I don’t know about you, but I believe that there is always positive side in everything we face. This doesn’t mean that you are denying the reality; you just look at it from a different angle.

OPEN YOUR MIND TO THE UNEXPECTED

This may well be the toughest challenge of all, because by its very nature you must have at least a measure of optimism in order to be able to open yourself to unexpected experiences. But it is well worth the effort to cultivate this ability because the ideal solution to a challenge or problem often comes in unpredictable ways that may never have occurred to you before.

Finally, be kind to yourself as you work to create a more positive outlook on life. Perfectionism isn’t normal, so avoid creating that level of expectation for yourself. On the other hand, if you persist you can look forward to smelling the sweetness of success as you begin to feel more optimistic about life. Take the time to savor that feeling, and reward yourself for being proactive about creating a better life!