Optimist and Pessimist Optimism vs.

¶ … Optimist and Pessimist

Optimism vs. pessimism: The explanatory style of the optimist and the pessimist

An optimist is "one who usually expects a favorable outcome." This is the definition of optimism provided by the American Heritage Dictionary. However, I would disagree with this definition. An optimist knows that the road of life sometimes has a few bumps and that a favorable outcome is not always assured. Instead, an optimist is a person who believes that accentuating the positive in his or her mind is more productive, as opposed to focusing on the negative aspects of life. An optimist might know that he or she has a hard path ahead when pursuing a goal. The optimist has confidence that hard work will yield great dividends. The optimist will enjoy the journey to the goal, even if that goal is not achieved. An optimist believes in the power of positive thinking -- and doing, because if someone does not think in a positive fashion, he or she is very unlikely to try.

The optimist knows that change is possible or at very least, change is impossible if someone does not have faith in change.

The pessimist only sees more gloom, doom, and the impossibility of things ever becoming better. A pessimist is, according to the dictionary, defined as someone who has: "a tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view" of circumstances. The pessimist may like to think of him or herself as more realistic and level-headed than an optimist, but in reality the pessimist's point is limited to seeing only one side of the equation of life. The pessimist's viewpoint is not always more accurate than the optimist's, simply more bleak.

The cliche is this: for the optimist, the glass is half full, for the pessimist the glass is half empty. The optimist sees the half-full glass, and wonders -- how can I make this glass fuller, finding hope in the fact that the glass still contains something of worth? The pessimist focuses on what is lacking, and mutters -- 'see, I knew I would never get enough.' The optimist focuses on what he or she has at hand, the pessimist on what is lacking. Both the optimist and the pessimist live in imperfect worlds, of course. In everyone's life 'a little rain must fall.' But the optimist is able to find the beauty in a rainy day, while the pessimist can only see gloom and doom. The optimist knows that the sun will come out tomorrow or at least the day after tomorrow -- or the day after that, as the weather is always changing.

An optimist has a sense of humor. When he or she has a bad day, the optimist tells a funny story about the bad traffic, the loss of a contact lens, or the burnt toast. In the eyes of the pessimist, these mishaps are minor tragedies, and are cited as the reason that he or she is in a funk for the rest of the day. But no matter what, the pessimist will be in a bad mood, because there is always some small thing he or she can pick at, to find a reason to be disagreeable with others, and to make other people's days just a little bit worse. The pessimist uses minor mishaps as an excuse for bad behavior -- or despair. The optimist tries to learn from mistakes and troubles, and mistakes make the optimist more hardy and capable with dealing with stress.

Of course, optimism can be taken to a ridiculous extreme. It is silly to say that it is always 'for the best in the best of all possible worlds,' like Professor Pangloss from Candide. When a loved one passes away from cancer, this is not 'for the best,' and the optimist still feels pain. However, the optimist says that no experience is purely for the worst, and at least powerful lessons can be learned form the experience about always living life to the fullest, and the positive outlook that their loved one was able to have, even at the end. A pessimist simply looks at the sky and wails 'why me, why must terrible things happen,' without realizing that death is inevitable for everyone, and it is incumbent upon all human beings to take positive lessons from life, both the good and the bad.

Scientific studies indicate that pessimism can be hazardous to human health: studies have found that patients recovering from coronary artery surgery who expected a positive outcome and had an optimistic outlook recovered more quickly than patients who did not (Weil 2004). Optimism also seems to lowers the risk of heart disease in general (Weil 2004). This may be due to the hormonal surge of endorphins happiness brings -- or simply that the viewpoint of an optimist promotes health. A pessimist may say 'there is nothing I can do about my weight' while an optimist will vow to reform his or her eating habits and lifestyle, thinking 'change is possible.' These are examples of how a person's mood can create their reality -- not just their mental reality but their physical reality.