Optimism: Can You Always Have A Positive Attitude?

You do, you do, if you do choose to do, you do!

[This is Part # 8 of a 20 Part Series to Improve Your Strengths] — Take the Strengths TEST

Quote: “Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll.  The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!” -Oscar Wilde

Definition: “a general disposition to expect the best in all things”

You know that guy at work or school – the one who always has a smile on his face and a hop in his step?  The one who always seems to be on the up-and-up when it comes to strolling through life without a care in the world… always as if he knows how to maintain a positive attitude at every waking moment…

Ask yourself this… is it because he really doesn’t have a care to bother with or that there’s something else going on?  What makes him so happy?  How can he turn his lemons into lemonade at every chance he gets?

Have you ever thought about asking him?

I’ll claim to be one of these fellers… and I’ll assume that since you’ve read this far – you might eventually get around to asking me how I keep a cheery head on.  I’d be most excellently happy to let you in on a couple of my thoughts on this strength improving journey.

No one is born knowing that such things as lemonade stands exist and if you don’t know they exist… well… a lemon will always be only what you know it *can* be – sour and dull.

Immediately Dismiss Negative Reactions & Focus On Positive Attitudes

Do you see the rain clouds for the inconvenience it parts upon your new clothes or for the new life given to the plant that grows?  Button popped off your shirt an indicator that you’re headed to diet-ville, or a chance to reassess your lifestyle and supercharge your health?

For some reason, people like to keep a keen eye on the bad in life.  Don’t ask me why, and except for some boring neurological/psychological explanations, it doesn’t make much sense for making life any better.  You just have to really pay attention now to when these beasts crop up, stop them in their tracks, and redirect them on their way away.