Life Choices: Optimism vs. Pessimism

By Frosty Wooldridge

“To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but great deeds. To live in faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.” Christian D. Larson

(Life can be an uplifting reflection of reality or a downward reflection of reality. It all comes down to choices in daily living.) Photography by Frosty Wooldridge

Clearly, Ms. Larson punches your ticket for the “optimism train-ride through life.” She encourages you to step on board with the idea that life offers you enormous creative possibilities.

Throughout history, optimists overcame every human dilemma with their ideas that things turn out well on the positive side of living. Pessimists, on the other hand, expected the worst through choice.

Helen Keller said, “Let pessimism take hold of the mind, and life is all topsy-turvy, all vanity and vexation of spirit. There is no cure for individual or social disorder, except in forgetfulness and annihilation.”

She understood the final result that pessimism renders the heart and mind deadened to the possibilities of vibrant living. While being positive or negative toward a certain outcome may not sway the universe in your direction, please consider the “Universe” conspires with your thought patterns when you align with Its flow propensities.

Sarah Breathnach said, "Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth."

One of the factors you will discover in your optimistic approach to life continues today: when you think something will turn out well, you live with expectation. For example, when you attend a basketball game, you anticipate your team may become victorious. You choose that “emotional idea” throughout the game. If you win, you feel the wonder of it all. If your team loses, your expectations feel dashed on the hard rocks of reality.

With a pessimist, he or she expects to lose the game. The question arises: why play or participate or engage life at all? It’s all going to turn out poorly anyway.

Reality check: your DNA expects to win. Optimism courses through each cell in your body.

Two things about optimistic thinking and living come to mind:

• How you feel positively constitutes your interpretation of an event. It nudges you toward your own fulfillment.
• The pure act of anticipation gives you expectation, which in turn, thrives within your cells.

While “absolute zero” reality could care less about your positive or negative thought processes, when you think in an optimistic manner, your directed thought patterns manifest in ways you may not understand. It’s called “flow of the emerging creative energy of the universe.” Once you tap into it and align with its dynamic current, you accelerate or enhance every cell in your body toward living at its highest and best.

Therefore, what good do you find in pessimism? Would you hang out with pessimists because they dwell on the negatives of life? Or, do you hang with optimists who laugh in the face of rain at your garden party?

In my own life, I decided to circle the globe on a bicycle, stand on the South Pole and walk on the Wall of China. So far so good! How did I make my dreams come true? Answer: optimism, effort over time and persistence.

No matter what station in life you started, you can make yourself unhappy with a pessimistic attitude or you can choose happiness with your optimistic thrust. Such a choice allows you to soar with eagles, become a fabulous parent, write the next All-American novel, travel the globe and engage your highest and best. It makes for one hell of an adventure of your mind and heart.

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