The glass is always half full
Last weekend I was watching a movie "Forrest Gump" which has won four academic awards. "Forrest Gump" is a fictional character based on the 1986 novel "Forrest Gump", written by Winston Groom. In the movie Forrest is a simple man with a low IQ who has an extraordinary journey through life. He meets historical figures and experiences historic events even though he is unaware of their deeper meanings. While presented in an entertaining and potentially inspirational fashion these are experiences and events that most handicapped people do not have.
Forrest symbolizes the way we wish to deal with the problems we face throughout the course of our lives, and how we would go about solving them if the Universe was on our side. What’s so inspiring about it is Forrest’s personality that’s full of optimism. He never let any kind of situation bring him down or tear him up. He always thinks and sees the world as a fine place, on contrary to most of modern people these days.
Today I am going to talk about OPTIMISM. Optimism is the basis of positive thinking. Many studies have shown that the optimistic look at the life leads to lesser depression and distress. If the person thinks optimistically, it gives people the will to expand the efforts to achieve their goals. On the contrary, the person puts less efforts into a task and more likely to give up, if he/she thinks that he is going to fail. Optimism is an attitude to life that prevents people from becoming apathetic, or giving up hope. A Dutch study claims that optimistic people tend to live longer. I am sure, all of you have heard of the expression… Is the glass half empty or half full?
Having read many stories and books, I have realized one thing most of the successful people in this world have never given up being an optimist.
Take an example of Sir Edmund Hillary. Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953 he scaled the highest mountain then known to man-29,000 feet straight up. However, unless we read his book, High Adventure, we don't understand that Hillary had to grow into this success. In 1952 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but failed. A few weeks later a group in England asked him to address its members. Hillary walked on stage to a thunderous applause. The audience was recognizing an attempt at greatness, but Edmund Hillary saw himself as a failure. He moved away from the microphone and walked to the edge of the platform. He made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow... but I'm still growing!"
Why are some people so happy and optimistic and other so unhappy and pessimistic? Pessimists always believe that the misfortune is long lasting or repetitive. “Things will never get better”; “If I have failed once, it will happen again”. There's a misconception that pessimism is prudent because you can never go wrong by assuming the worst.
Some people see the glass as half empty. Others see it as half full. But is it really as simple as that? Is it possible to be a bit of both? What are the advantages and disadvantages to both? Maybe there is more to both mind-sets.
I know a few people who always say, "I would rather expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised on the rare occasion when good happens than be disappointed all the time". In such situation, I believe, these people are always worried and wait good things to happen while worrying. Of course, when things turn out very well, they become happy for few moments of the life. However, they always keep on forgetting that during this wait, they have lost so many good moments of life, which they could have enjoyed. My response to them is always, "I would much prefer to expect the best and enjoy what life gives me than to constantly worry about how bad things are."
Begin to see things that go wrong as an opportunity to put them right. Learn from setbacks don't take them personally. Remember to try, try and try again. Each time you fail, you have learnt how not to do something. So next time, you will do it differently. Always believe in yourself, own the responsibility, but do not continuously blame yourself. Each time something goes wrong ask yourself; how can I turn this to my advantage?
If it rains when you have a barbeque, it's not your fault. You cannot control the weather. Laugh about it and simply move indoors. You see it's not a problem. You have the opportunity to turn the barbeque into a party. You will probably find you will have an even better time.
Now if you had worried about the weather, then possibly the barbeque would not have even taken place. You would have convinced yourself that it was going to rain so you would have not even bothered to organise it. Now on the other hand if you had thought about the possibility of rain and had a plan in place to deal with that problem when and if it happened. You would have naturalised the negative effect.
However, when you add positive, productive action to that optimism, this is when truly amazing things can happen. You can be as optimistic as you want that you will find a way to get the money for that new car or new house, but unless you are including the productive action that helps to push things to that end, you will never get there. The difference between only thinking optimistically and thinking optimistically while acting in a productive manner is kind of like saying to an empty fireplace "Give me warmth and then I will put some wood in you".
So I would say to you: be optimistic! Expect the best out of life! Expecting the best out of life is better than being miserably pessimistic. Above all though my optimistic friend, don't forget to do your part to not just think but also act optimistically.
I started with description of one of my favorite movie. Of course, I will like to end the part with one master-piece. This comes from the movie, “Lord of The Ring”, which has won more than 15 academy awards. This is a very touching scene from the movie, where "Frodo Baggins", who has been assigned the task to destroy the ring, is about to quit and his friend gives him some motivation saying…
"There is something good in this world, Mr. Frodo......and it's worth fighting for."
Forrest symbolizes the way we wish to deal with the problems we face throughout the course of our lives, and how we would go about solving them if the Universe was on our side. What’s so inspiring about it is Forrest’s personality that’s full of optimism. He never let any kind of situation bring him down or tear him up. He always thinks and sees the world as a fine place, on contrary to most of modern people these days.
Today I am going to talk about OPTIMISM. Optimism is the basis of positive thinking. Many studies have shown that the optimistic look at the life leads to lesser depression and distress. If the person thinks optimistically, it gives people the will to expand the efforts to achieve their goals. On the contrary, the person puts less efforts into a task and more likely to give up, if he/she thinks that he is going to fail. Optimism is an attitude to life that prevents people from becoming apathetic, or giving up hope. A Dutch study claims that optimistic people tend to live longer. I am sure, all of you have heard of the expression… Is the glass half empty or half full?
Having read many stories and books, I have realized one thing most of the successful people in this world have never given up being an optimist.
Take an example of Sir Edmund Hillary. Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953 he scaled the highest mountain then known to man-29,000 feet straight up. However, unless we read his book, High Adventure, we don't understand that Hillary had to grow into this success. In 1952 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but failed. A few weeks later a group in England asked him to address its members. Hillary walked on stage to a thunderous applause. The audience was recognizing an attempt at greatness, but Edmund Hillary saw himself as a failure. He moved away from the microphone and walked to the edge of the platform. He made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow... but I'm still growing!"
Why are some people so happy and optimistic and other so unhappy and pessimistic? Pessimists always believe that the misfortune is long lasting or repetitive. “Things will never get better”; “If I have failed once, it will happen again”. There's a misconception that pessimism is prudent because you can never go wrong by assuming the worst.
Some people see the glass as half empty. Others see it as half full. But is it really as simple as that? Is it possible to be a bit of both? What are the advantages and disadvantages to both? Maybe there is more to both mind-sets.
I know a few people who always say, "I would rather expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised on the rare occasion when good happens than be disappointed all the time". In such situation, I believe, these people are always worried and wait good things to happen while worrying. Of course, when things turn out very well, they become happy for few moments of the life. However, they always keep on forgetting that during this wait, they have lost so many good moments of life, which they could have enjoyed. My response to them is always, "I would much prefer to expect the best and enjoy what life gives me than to constantly worry about how bad things are."
Begin to see things that go wrong as an opportunity to put them right. Learn from setbacks don't take them personally. Remember to try, try and try again. Each time you fail, you have learnt how not to do something. So next time, you will do it differently. Always believe in yourself, own the responsibility, but do not continuously blame yourself. Each time something goes wrong ask yourself; how can I turn this to my advantage?
If it rains when you have a barbeque, it's not your fault. You cannot control the weather. Laugh about it and simply move indoors. You see it's not a problem. You have the opportunity to turn the barbeque into a party. You will probably find you will have an even better time.
Now if you had worried about the weather, then possibly the barbeque would not have even taken place. You would have convinced yourself that it was going to rain so you would have not even bothered to organise it. Now on the other hand if you had thought about the possibility of rain and had a plan in place to deal with that problem when and if it happened. You would have naturalised the negative effect.
However, when you add positive, productive action to that optimism, this is when truly amazing things can happen. You can be as optimistic as you want that you will find a way to get the money for that new car or new house, but unless you are including the productive action that helps to push things to that end, you will never get there. The difference between only thinking optimistically and thinking optimistically while acting in a productive manner is kind of like saying to an empty fireplace "Give me warmth and then I will put some wood in you".
So I would say to you: be optimistic! Expect the best out of life! Expecting the best out of life is better than being miserably pessimistic. Above all though my optimistic friend, don't forget to do your part to not just think but also act optimistically.
I started with description of one of my favorite movie. Of course, I will like to end the part with one master-piece. This comes from the movie, “Lord of The Ring”, which has won more than 15 academy awards. This is a very touching scene from the movie, where "Frodo Baggins", who has been assigned the task to destroy the ring, is about to quit and his friend gives him some motivation saying…
"There is something good in this world, Mr. Frodo......and it's worth fighting for."
posted by panda at
10:02 AM
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