Optimism

I would say that in general I have an optimistic outlook on life. I am afforded this outlook for all sorts of reasons including luck, privilege and biology. To coin a very well trodden phrase, my cup always seems to be half full rather than half empty. I mean I get grumpy sometimes, but in general I can look at the brighter side and believe that the outcome will be beneficial to me. This infuses my decision making with positivity and I feel lighter after making decisions, rather than heavier.

Normally knockbacks are easily brushed off. A little dust flicked off the shoulder à la Jay-Z and on I go. There are times when I’ve been down on something or worried about a decision or how something will land and yet the feeling or pessimism has not lasted long. I’ve been able to lift myself back to optimism. Over the last couple of years the dust seems to have settled heavier and thicker and be a little harder to get rid of. My cup has seemed a little empty at times. It has been harder to climb the pessimism mountain back to optimism.

And I’ve gotten through this little period of low optimism by planning. It seems rather cold written down, but I believe there’s a lot to be said for a decent plan. O and a spreadsheet. Big plans in my life come with a spreadsheet. You’ve got to have everything in a list and be able to create a decent formula. And if you get that formula right first time and you press the enter key and it all works perfectly, well, give yourself a chocolate biscuit. Ermmmm back to plans.

So if I’m feeling pessimistic, I make a plan. I look at the week’s sport fixtures and type into my calendar when they’re on. Cool, I have some sport to watch and can relax. I check the cinema listings and what’s on at the theatre. I want to see that play, buy two tickets. Work out who will come with you later. I look at when I can exercise, plug that into the calendar. And when you need to make a big decision or something big is happening like I’m buying a house at the moment. Make a plan. And it’s a big plan, but everything is in place and I can add to it as I go along. And this helps me with the pessimism because my pessimism contributes to a feeling of being overwhelmed and if I have a plan then I can relax a little more as everything is in place. Then I can concentrate my energy on being more optimistic.

Recently I seem to be slowly coming out of that period of pessimism and back to my optimistic self. I’m still making plans though, ensuring I have things to look forward to. I seem to hear a lot at the minute about how our country is broken and things are crumbling (I mean literally if you’re a public building built in a certain time period) but there are reasons to be optimistic. We just have to look a little harder to find them.