Oh the wonderfully optimistic, how happy they are. Well, until their optimism fails, then they don't tend to be very optimistic do they? So what is optimistic, really? Optimism is more than the "glass half full" approach to life, though that does have a bit to do with it.
What Optimism Is Not
Optimism is not a blind faith that everything is fine. Optimism is not a ditzy naïve view of the world. Optimism is not a bad thing. Being an optimistic person does not mean you don't understand the gravity of a situation, or that you are missing the bigger picture. It is not an unchangeable view that the glass is not only half full, but will never run out. Because eventually, it might.
What Optimism Is
Optimism is the most positive outlook on a situation. It is an attitude, an angle from which to view the world. Nothing more, nothing less. People that are often perceived as "optimistic", that are always saying everything will be fine are not optimistic, they are naïve. Everything is not always fine, but looking at a situation from the most positive angle possible often produces the most positive results. The true optimist says, "Yes, this is bad. Really bad, but what can we do about it?". You are acknowledging the gravity of the situation, but you also acknowledge that you cannot fix everything so you look at those things you can fix and make the best out of a bad situation. Sometimes the only thing about a bad situation that you can change is your own attitude towards it. This is important. Your attitude controls all that you do and how you perceive the world. Some people will dwell for years over things they cannot change, things of the past. An optimist looks at the world from a slightly different perspective, like getting the chance to see something from the ground and then from the sky. It's all the same stuff, but can look so much different, you might even see patterns you never guessed were there. Those "patterns" in life open doors, and allow an optimistic mind to be at peace with itself. An optimistic attitude can also lead to a great success after a supreme failure, when most others would have given up hope and stopped. Optimists accept mistakes and make the best out of them and do not worry about what they cannot change, only work around it.
Most people think of optimism and pessimism as the "glass half full, glass half empty" way of life. While those are basic characteristics of those viewpoints, it doesn't define them very well. The views of an optimist and a pessimist are direct opposites, and those personalities do not often work well together. So what does define the difference between optimism vs. pessimism? No matter what remember that motivation matters when it comes to being optimistic.
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