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positive thinking
You don’t have to know me very long before you’ll hear me say, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?”
I recently heard about two best friends who loved football so much they made a pact that whichever one died first would come back and let the other know if there is football in heaven. Finally, one of them dies and after getting to heaven sends word back to his friend, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is there is football in heaven. The bad news is you’re shooting a penalty corner next Friday.”
![glass-half-full[1]](http://mikegothard.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/glass-half-full1.jpg?w=122&h=200 "glass-half-full[1]")
Everything is a mixture of good news and bad news. Sometimes, though, it’s difficult to discern what is truly good news and what is truly bad news? Sometimes good news comes disguised as bad and bad news often masquerades as good.
Though I hesitate to admit it, more often than not I’m not a very good judge of what is really good in my life and what is really bad. I think I am, but I’m usually not. And I’ll bet you’re not as good at it as you think you are either. So I look at most things through the lens that almost everything in life has a good news component and a bad news component.
Optimists tend to focus on the good news at the expense of the bad news. Their glass is always half full which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, when the glass drops below half full, or the pitcher runs out of liquid, or someone taints the half full glass with arsenic optimism doesn’t serve us so well.
There comes a point when optimism actually becomes a detriment. While optimists tend to behave in more financially prudent ways than most, extreme optimists tend to have “short planning horizons” and more frequently act in unwise ways.
Manju Puri writes, “The differences between optimists and extreme optimists are remarkable, and suggest that over-optimism, like overconfidence, may in fact lead to behaviors that are unwise.”
Pessimists, on the other hand, tend to focus on the bad news at the expense of the good news. Their glass is always half empty, which again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, when the source filling the glass is a fire hydrant, pessimism fails to serve us well either.
Pessimism falls short notably in explaining the events we experience, especially problems. According to psychologist Martin Seligman, pessimists tend to explain problems as though they are personal, pervasive, and permanent.
While we tend to embrace optimism and shy away from pessimism, psychologists believe the most successful people are those who are neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic, but a healthy combination of both.
Referred to as realism by some, when we consciously take both the good and the bad into account, we place ourselves in the best possible position to deal with a situation or circumstance. After all, being optimistic about something doesn’t miraculously make something good and being pessimistic about something doesn’t automatically make it bad.
So when asked, “Is your glass half full or half empty,” the best answer is always, “Yes.”
I recently heard about two best friends who loved football so much they made a pact that whichever one died first would come back and let the other know if there is football in heaven. Finally, one of them dies and after getting to heaven sends word back to his friend, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is there is football in heaven. The bad news is you’re shooting a penalty corner next Friday.”
Though I hesitate to admit it, more often than not I’m not a very good judge of what is really good in my life and what is really bad. I think I am, but I’m usually not. And I’ll bet you’re not as good at it as you think you are either. So I look at most things through the lens that almost everything in life has a good news component and a bad news component.
Optimists tend to focus on the good news at the expense of the bad news. Their glass is always half full which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, when the glass drops below half full, or the pitcher runs out of liquid, or someone taints the half full glass with arsenic optimism doesn’t serve us so well.
There comes a point when optimism actually becomes a detriment. While optimists tend to behave in more financially prudent ways than most, extreme optimists tend to have “short planning horizons” and more frequently act in unwise ways.
Manju Puri writes, “The differences between optimists and extreme optimists are remarkable, and suggest that over-optimism, like overconfidence, may in fact lead to behaviors that are unwise.”
Pessimists, on the other hand, tend to focus on the bad news at the expense of the good news. Their glass is always half empty, which again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, when the source filling the glass is a fire hydrant, pessimism fails to serve us well either.
Pessimism falls short notably in explaining the events we experience, especially problems. According to psychologist Martin Seligman, pessimists tend to explain problems as though they are personal, pervasive, and permanent.
While we tend to embrace optimism and shy away from pessimism, psychologists believe the most successful people are those who are neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic, but a healthy combination of both.
So when asked, “Is your glass half full or half empty,” the best answer is always, “Yes.”
Lets Talk Institute Pvt ltd : learning center for English speaking Skills, Personality Development, Business English, Accent Training, American Accent, Ielts and Tofel in Mumbai Visit us at : http://www.letstalk.co.in
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