Optimism vs Pessimism ...

It Is Just a Way of Thinking!

Optimism vs Pessimism - it's not a fair fight! Optimists tend to outperform pessimists in all respects. Even if you are more an optimist than a pessimist keep reading - as this article will help you (and helps you to assist others) use ever more of your potential, by helping you to understand:

• the impact of your past experiences
• how you have been trained by those around you to view the world
• how to shift yourself and others from limiting pessimistic thinking.

Optimism vs Pessimism - What Studies Show

Over the last 30-40 years psychologists have studied the impact of our thoughts, expectations and beliefs on our behaviour. They have found that the way you reason with yourself about the things that happen to you has a huge impact on your success - at work, home, school, in your community etc.

Research shows that people with an optimistic life-view tend to outperform pessimists in all respects.

Pessimists are up to 8 times more likely to become depressed when bad events occur; they do worse at school, sports, and most jobs than their talents would suggest; they have worse physical health and shorter lives; they have rockier relationships.

Martin Seligman (Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania) is known as the father of the positive psychology movement. It is the groundbreaking research that he and his team have done in this arena that is very much shaping our world. This video shows his thoughts on optimism vs pessimism.

Optimism vs Pessimism - It's Learned - Which Means You Can Change It!

People generally are not born with either an Optimistic or Pessimistic view of the world. It is learned behavior - learned either through experience or through other people telling us who we are: "You are a great runner, you are a winner, you are a loser, you are useless, you are not good at maths, you are a great musician etc."

The terms frequently used to describe this phenomenon are Learned Helplessness and Learned Optimism. And the great news is that because this behavior is Learned it can be Unlearned.

Dr Martin Seligman who wrote Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life has shown that people can dramatically impact their sense of well being and optimism, career options and confidence levels, by changing the way they think. You can train yourself to develop a more optimistic outlook. Go to the Authentic Happiness website to take the test to see where you rate on the Optimism vs Pessimism scale. (You will need to subscribe, but it's a safe site and the test you want is called the Optimism Test)

There are times when having a pessimistic view is beneficial.

For example if you are driving in thick fog it might be good to be focused on the fact that a car could be coming in the opposite direction!

Many studies have found that pessimists were more accurate in their assessments than optimists. For example, in one test researchers had people pressing a switch to turn a light on and off. Even when they had no control over whether the light came on or off optimists still rated themselves as having a high degree of control over the light. Whereas pessimists accurately predicted how much or little control, they did indeed have, over the light coming on or off.

So in business it can be good to have some pessimists attached to your team, as they will often have a much stronger handle on reality than the optimists.

Optimism vs Pessimism - The Three Crucial Elements: Permanent, Pervasive, Personal

There are three crucial elements in the thinking styles which differentiate pessimists from optimists. When something bad happens pessimists automatically think that the cause is:

• Permanent: "It's going to last forever"
• Pervasive: "It's going to undermine everything"" and
• Personal: "It's my fault"

Optimists in contrast have a strength that allows them to interpret their setbacks as surmountable, particular to a specific problem and resulting from temporary circumstances or other people.

If you think about bad things in terms of 'always' and 'never' and that they are caused by your poor characteristics and traits which are set in stone then you have a permanent pessimistic style. If you think in terms of 'sometimes' and 'lately' and blame bad events on temporary causes you have an optimistic style.

Permanence

Optimism vs Pessimism: When Bad Things Happen

The thinking is something like this for bad events

The Pessimist Thinks ... "It Is Permanent"	The Optimist Thinks ... "It Is Temporary""
"I'm all washed up" "Diets never work"	"I'm just exhausted at the moment" "Diets don't work when you eat out"

When we are unsuccessful at something, we all become at least momentarily dejected and immobilized. Some people (those who are optimistic) will bounce back very quickly. Others though remain stuck, or bearing a grudge which could last for days or months (even after only small setbacks). If something major happens to them, they may never bounce back.

The optimistic style for good events is just the opposite of the optimistic style for bad events. People who believe good events have permanent causes are more optimistic than those who believe they have temporary causes. Optimistic people explain good events to themselves in terms of permanent causes such as traits and abilities. Pessimists name transient causes such as moods and effort.

Optimism vs Pessimism: When Good Things Happen

The thinking is something like this for good events

People who believe good events have permanent causes will try harder the next time. People who see temporary reasons for good events may give up even when they succeed ... believing it was a fluke.

Pervasiveness

So now we've covered permanence, now lets move to pervasiveness. People pretty much fall into two boxes when it comes to setbacks or successes. Those who globalize events and those who isolate events. Some people when something bad happens in one area give up on everything. For example, a person loses their job and it affects their marriage, their relationships, their health etc.

Some people can put their troubles into a box and go about their lives even when one important aspect (their job for example) is crumbling. Others let a problem in one area bleed all over the rest of their life.

It comes down to this: people who make global explanations for their problems give up on everything when a crash happens in one area. People who make specific explanations may become helpless in that one area of their life but get on with the rest.

The permanence dimension on the assessment at the Authentic Happiness website will indicate to you how long you will stay down for. Permanent explanations for bad events produce long-lasting helplessness and temporary explanations produces resilience. The pervasiveness dimension determines whether helplessness cuts across many situations or is limited to the original area.

Optimism vs Pessimism: When Bad Things Happen

The thinking is something like this for bad events

So, the optimist believes good events will enhance everything s/he does, while the pessimist believes good events are caused by specific factors

Optimism vs Pessimism: When Good Things Happen

The thinking is something like this for good events

People who make permanent and pervasive explanations for good events as well as temporary and specific explanations for bad events, bounce back from troubles briskly and get on a roll easily when they succeed once. People who make temporary and specific explanations for setbacks, tend to collapse under pressure - both for a long time and across situations - and rarely get on a roll.

So how do we improve optimism and hope? We do this by disputing pessimistic thoughts. A method well documented by the psychology profession to work and work well is the ABCDE model.

Optimism vs Pessimism - it's over to you to decide which style of thinking you want to dominate your life. It's over to you to decide the results you want in your life. Best of luck!