Attitude is everything

 

Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness.


“The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser – in case you thought optimism was dead.”


Is there any proof that optimism leads to better results?

Walter Isaacson says, “[Steve Jobs] taught himself to stare without blinking so he could talk people into things — they called it the reality distortion field….He would make people believe they could do the impossible, which is why he was such a charismatic business leader.”

Is Optimism detrimental?

Generally, ‘optimism’ is not detrimental but is a good positive mental attitude.

However, blind optimism, obsessively optimistic, optimism with arrogance, irrational optimism, etc. can backfire on the individual.

In philosophy, ‘optimism’ can refer to ‘optimistic’ on the existence of god and going to heaven after physical death. The non-theistic would then be taking a ‘pessimistic’ stance in contra to this sense of ‘theistic optimism’. This theistic optimism can be detrimental to humanity arising from the excesses of theism.


Optimism – A short story:

There was a king who once went to the jungle for hunting. He was accompanied by one of his ministers. While the minister was trying to arrow down a peacock, he happens to hurt the king’s index finger unknowingly. The king turns very furious. He decides to maroon the minister deep in the forest. 

Doing so, he starts off to his palace. On the way, he encounters some tribal inhabitants. They immediately take custody of the king and prepare him for a ritual sacrifice. 

While just about to kill the king, one of them notices the king’s bleeding finger. He informs this to all his fellowmen. They then let the king go, saying that an incomplete life can not be given as a sacrifice to the God.

The king realizes that the mistake committed by the minister has now saved him. He goes back to the minister, narrates to him what had happened, apologizes and thanks him. The minister being very optimistic says that it is he who has to thank the king for marooning him. 

Bewildered, the king asks what for he is thanked? The minister replies that if he had not been marooned by the king, the tribal would have killed him for being perfectly healthy.
The minister concluded that there is always something good in whatever happens. 











Source:
Attitude, after all, is everything – Optimism