4 Misconceptions About Optimism (and Harsh Reality)
No one can doubt that optimism, in some situations, can be a key to achieving success in some aspect of our lives. However, We live in times when the obsession with happiness makes many people think that optimism is everything.
Being optimistic has its advantages, but as long as it is in tune with the environment and the reality in which we operate. Like everything in this life, both excess and lack of optimism are negative.
Each person has their own peculiarities and, obviously, being pessimistic is not a good thing. In fact, people who are sensible and objective, and are also optimistic, can be considered advantaged.
Optimists are people who look at the positive side of things instead of spending the whole day complaining, who don’t care how many times they fall, because they learn positive things from each experience. Now, the optimist is not that person who always has a smile on his face despite adversity, but rather he is someone with high self-confidence and is realistic with the environment that surrounds him.
But, What are optimistic people like? This type of individuals present a series of characteristics:
False beliefs about optimism
While being optimistic is beneficial, some people may hold false beliefs about this positive mindset.
Happiness depends on many factors, and thinking that simply by adopting a positive mindset and being optimistic everything will go smoothly is a mistake. Optimism is not something that one imposes on oneself, but rather it is a way of thinking and behaving that has a lot to do with the level of self-confidence that a person has and how this relates to the events that occur around them.
Optimism is not looking the other way when negative things happen, but rather facing reality as it is and accepting it. Once accepted, it is about getting moving and working step by step to achieve what you want.
2. Optimism is an attitude
Optimism is not something that an individual can impose on themselves, and as I said, it has to do with building a strong personality and being a realistic person who trusts themselves. It is not about seeing life in rosy colors and living oblivious to problems. It’s about analyzing them and accepting them. To observe and detach emotionally from some unpleasant situations.
It’s about looking to the future, but always with your feet on the ground. Optimism is not living in irrational expectations. It’s seeing things as they are and learning from them. Optimistic people also fail, but they understand that failures are part of life.
3. Problems are solved with optimism
Optimism alone does not solve problems. It can motivate us to move forward, but we also have to do our part so that everything goes as we wish. Therefore, self-confidence is key in this sense, because it is a psychological variable that refers to the perception of the skills and resources we have when carrying out a task. Believing in yourself does solve problems, not optimism alone.
Thinking that you can be optimistic all the time and live with a smile on your face all the time is unrealistic, and in this case we would be talking about false optimism. As humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow said, “False optimism sooner or later disillusions, angers, and despairs.”
False optimism has to do with low self-esteem and an attempt to hide the insecurity one feels. In fact, false optimists do not achieve the goals they set, because they are not realistic. In the long run, and as Maslow explains, false optimism ends up frustrating the person.
