Being an Optimistic Pessimist
Being a pessimist isn’t all that bad
The online world is flooded with all sorts of information. One of them is positive, uplifting quotes. It can be addictive scrolling down Facebook reading these quotes. Yes, we all need encouragement. We all need affirmation that we ‘can do it.’ We all need to hear (read) that everything will be alright.
I admit that sometimes I can’t stop reading them on my Facebook feed. I got fed these quotes daily from many ‘inspirational pages’ I’m following. That’s how much I need positive energy! I feel ‘the power’ while reading the quotes, but the power never stays.
As a pessimist, I’m not very susceptible to the positive power emanating from these quotes. Poor me! I can’t stay positive and energetic as long as I should be, not to mention ‘all the time.’ But this is me. I understand and accept it.
As far as my belief and experiences go, accepting and understanding one’s nature as a pessimist is actually a good thing. One example is if being pessimistic is something you want to change, accepting that you’re a pessimist is the start of that change.
The first step to a change is accepting that one needs to change. — Various inspirational quotes on the Internet
Accepting that you’re a pessimist has a bunch of good aspects. Apart from a precursor to a better change, acceptance makes you feel at peace (with being a pessimist.)
As a pessimist, I tend to expect the worst. As a result, I come prepared in many situations. For example, when I plan to eat out with a friend, I expect that there won’t be a parking slot free for my car at the restaurant. Because of this, I would choose to go on public transportation instead. Looking a bit deeper into this situation, choosing public transportation is a more economical choice — an overall better choice than choosing to drive my own car. I won’t have to put up with a bad traffic situation. The street will be free of one more car that evening, which will eventually contribute to the overall traffic condition. I don’t have to worry about finding a parking slot. I don’t have to worry about my car at all if drinking ensues. That sounds a lot of good comes from being pessimistic about a parking situation!
Being pessimistic about money situation makes myself a cautious spender. Viewing the money as something hard to come by, I save whatever I can for the dry times. Money-saving habits from a pessimistic point of view can also save money. And I thank myself for being a pessimist about money at times, and that is good.
Being pessimistic about work, you guessed it, makes me a more careful employee and deliver the best work I can. Keeping good work can’t possibly worsen already bad situations. Either way, you’ll get complaints from the customers or your boss, or even worse than complaints. When the time comes, I figure the last mark I want to leave at the company should be something I’m proud of. It doesn’t matter if anybody else cares about it.
To stick to the point of this article and make it deliver what it promises, I will go as far as to show you that there are some good things in being pessimistic about people, and the world in general, too! When it comes to this, it’s all about being pessimistic about ourselves. We see the world and judge other people based on our biases, which come from our experiences. At a point in life, something might happen and worsen your point of view about the world. That’s not uncommon. Being pessimistic about the world, about yourself, can make you immune to heartbreaks and less susceptible to false hopes. Not expecting much good to come your way means you’re, well, not expecting much. And not expecting much won’t definitely hurt much.
I can say that myself is a pessimist. That’s because I’m more of a negative person most of the time. But (as always) ‘most’ is not ‘all.’ I’m not a forever and complete pessimist. In fact, I’m feeling positive writing this article, as I’m trying to show you the optimistic aspects of being a pessimist. As the old saying goes — “There’s always good in bad, and vice versa.”
I don’t expect you to read until this line. But if you are reading this, thank you. I hope you get something useful from this article.
If I, a pessimist, can count this many good things from being negative, can you imagine what life will be like being an optimist or being positive most of the time?
