Focusing on the Positive, A-Z; Day 15: Optimism

 

Optimism

Optimism (noun)

: a feeling or belief that good things will happen in the future : a feeling or belief that what you hope for will happen

1

:  a doctrine that this world is the best possible world

2

:  an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome

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I am an optimist. Really, I am. Sure, I have my down times and sometimes its hard to see the sun through the clouds, but, in my core, optimism is the ruling force. Why wouldn’t it be? Who doesn’t hope for the best possible outcome?

Perhaps this is why I love dogs so much. They are truly the picture of optimism. I call them “eternally hopeful” because they are always looking for the best possible outcome and believe it will happen. At least, I know my dogs, and every dog I’ve ever met, are always expecting the happiest outcome.

My daughter and I half jokingly compare ourselves to the optimism of our dogs. We will expect things to turn out great, are surprised when they don’t, then ask ourselves why we believed they would turn out the way we had hoped/believed they would. Our standard answer? Because we are like the dogs, externally hopeful.

Despite the negative outcomes that have happened along my path, I have not lost my optimism. I am exceedingly grateful for that. I can’t imagine walking through life always expecting the worst to happen. How utterly depressing that would be. Nothing to look forward to, nothing to hope for, nothing to strive for since nothing could be positively attained. No thank you. I’ll keep looking for the pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, thank you very much.

Being optimistic is not always and easy thing, especially when you are trying to attain a goal that you have fail to succeed at before. Without optimism, though, it would be fruitless to even attempt to try a different route to that goal. It would mean I wasn’t giving 100% in my attempt to reach the goal. Not giving  100% means I don’t believe I will be successful in reaching my goal, that I have left room for failure, that I am wasting my time. If I fail, so what? It just means I need to take a minute to lick my wounds, formulate a new game plan, then move toward the goal as if I already have it in my hand. In the words of Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”