Optimism Essays

Keeping an Optimistic Attitude in Life Optimistic and pessimistic attitudes constantly affect the outcome of people's lives. In my life, I try to keep an optimistic attitude about the things I do because I know it will help lead me to more desirable ends. There have been many situations in which optimism has helped me through difficult times. Two areas in particular have provided me optimistic experiences: athleticsand academics. First, optimism was very apparent while I was the co–captain of my high school soccer team. I was captain during my senior year, perhaps the year we had the best team since I had begun playing in eighth grade. Right from the start of the season I had to show leadership and bring improvement in...show more content...

The most challenging times for me were those when we would be losing and all the players would get angry with one another. This was especially apparent when one of the defenders on our team would make a mistake and allow the other team to score. Many players would then yell at him creating a negative attitude both toward themselves and the player. At that time, even though I was actually angry myself, I would both stop the other players from yelling and offer encouragement to the one who had made the mistake. For the most part, I would simply offer some advice by pointing out what he had done wrong and told him how to do it right the next time. Thereby, I would always keep a very positive attitude and told the players that they were doing well, but they just had to do it better next time. I know that the way I approached the problem helped maintain a positive attitude among all the players. This approach led to the team playing better and winning more. Another application in which an optimistic attitude has proven to be very beneficial has been in academics. Notably, there have been classes in which assignments were difficult for me and led to less than sufficient grades. Even though I was disappointed with my poor performance, I always stayed optimistic about bringing the grades back up. The one time that stood out among

Get more content

I am an ambitious person, whose attitude on life is of absolute optimism. Throughout my 17 years, I have experienced many difficult situations. Those situations have helped me to appreciate the small things of life that people usually take for granted. Many of which have shaped who I am today. I come from a family in which my parents have struggled to give me a delightful life; we came to America looking for a betterfuture. I come from a place between rivers, and mountains with an amazing sunshine. I come from a country where the spring is unending, and the moon is extremely luminous. I come from a place of fervent splendor, because of its passionate people. Growing up in this environment helped me to feel life itself, and it gave...show more content...

For example, I have participated in several academic clubs, I have done community services, and the most important, I have worked hard to be persistent and diligent in my grades. These steps have helped me to evolve strong study skills and time management. My interest in education is the reason I have great confidence in my strength to prevail in the college environment. I know what hard work is; I have been engage in different academically beneficial clubs with my school including National Honor Society, FBLA Club, DECA Club, Spanish Club, and The Pre–College Education in Greater Newark. These programs have prepared me for the exigencies of the real world, obligating me to multitask in order to accomplish numerous deadlines. It has helped me to evolve into a well–rounded person. This will help me in the future with the pressure that college may rest on me. The most extraordinary educational experience was my participation in The Pre–College Education. This program made me part of New Jersey's Science & Technology University (NJIT), where I took English and Math classes. This familiarized me to the advanced environment that college life brings to the table. Many of the things I have achieved have encouraged me to fight for my dreams, to expand not only my knowledge, but also my horizons. In reflecting back on what I have done in life, it shows me that I am right on my way of doing things. I

Get more content

The Characteristics Of Optimism

Optimism is defined as the tendency or disposition to look on the more favourable sites of events or conditions and to expect the most favourable outcome. Optimists expect good things to happen to them (Carver, Scheier & Segerstrom, 2010). Thus, optimism focuses on expectancies for the future. Optimism is a trait by which it is relatively stable over time. The trait of optimism is heritable but environmental factors in childhood play a role as well (Carver, et. al., 2010). In particular, the presence of parental warmth and financial security is a predictor of optimism later in life. The anticipation of good things happening leads to more favourable behaviour and has a positive impact on people's lives (Carver, et. al., 2010). This is because optimists confront problems in a more healthy way, they cope better with adversity and they have different resources, both social and socioeconomic. Optimism has an influence on the feelings of people when they come across problems. Because optimistic people expect good things to happen, even in bad times, they will experience relatively positive feelings when they encounter problems. Optimists also cope with ...show more content...

Writing about one's possible self is a way to evoke writing about one's goals in life. Possible selves are the ideas a person has about what they might become, what they would like to become and what they are afraid of becoming in the future (Markus & Nurius, 1986). Possible selves create a conceptual link between cognition and motivation. This is because possible selves are the thoughts a person has about oneself in the future and these thoughts lead to or encourage certain behaviour to reach this picture someone has about oneself. Possible selves are very useful because they provide insight in future behaviour and about the current view some has about oneself (Markus & Nurius, Get more content

Voltaire's Attack on Optimism in Candide

Leibnitz emphasized, in his Discours de Metaphysique (Discourse on Metaphysics) (1686) the role of a benevolent creator. He called the constituent components of the universe monads, and while the philosophy of monads is of little concern to readers of Candide, the conclusion which Leibnitz drew from these monads is crucial to an understanding of optimism.

Leibnitz argued that all of these monads were linked in a complex chain of cause and effect and that this linking had been done by a divine creator as he created the harmonious universe. Since he was benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient, he logically would create the best of all possible worlds. Hence, everything...show more content...

As a Deist, Voltaire's God was one who initially created the world, and then left it to its own devices. When, at the end of Candide, Pangloss asks the dervish as to why man exists, the dervish responds "What does it matter whether there's good or evil? When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he worry whether the mice on board are comfortable or not?" To Voltaire, men were the mice, and "his highness" was not concerned in the least with their day to day existence.

How are Voltaire's views manifest in Candide??

Pangloss is meant not to attack Leibnitz, but rather optimism as a philosophy. Thus the reader cannot forget that all of Pangloss's ramblings are not Voltaire's personal attacks on Leibnitz, but in some way represent an (often humorous) characterization of the "typical" optimist. Pangloss, writes Voltaire, "Proved admirably that there cannot possibly be an effect without a cause, and that in this best of all possible worlds the Baron's castle was the most beautiful of all castles and his wife the best of all possible baronesses" (2). Thus we have established Pangloss as the champion of optimism.

Yet just as quickly, Voltaire points out the absurdity of this doctrine. "Observe," says Pangloss, seeking to demonstrate that everything has a cause and effect, "noses were made to support spectacles, hence we have spectacles. Legs, as anyone can

2.2Optimism

Hopefulness is an example of deduction in which great occasions are clarified by components that are inside, changeless, and inescapable, while awful occasions are clarified by variables that are outside, brief, and constrained in extension. This identity style yields an all the more fulfilling life as well as an existence with less probability of misery as an aftereffect of either the bothers of day by day living or real life occasions.

2.3Hardiness

Toughness is an identity style demonstrating a preferring of test, a solidfeeling of responsibility, and a solid feeling of control. For test, they think of it as characteristic for things to change and foresee change as a helpful boost for innovativeness. Then again, by trying,

Optimism Critical Thinking

What the world gains from optimism. Hellen Keller wrote in her essay titled "Optimism, Part 3: The Practice of Optimism", "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." Positive thinking is the true meaning of hope in the world that can lead to many great successes and can bring confidence. For example, as my softball season started up last year I knew I was going to struggle especially knowing my team would be getting a new coach. The year started with anxiety at a high but as the year continued, I continued to look on it with optimism and eventually my skills and my ability to use optimism improved. Optimism helped to give me confidence in myself and to succeed even though I had major doubts....show more content...

Optimism can definitely lead to obtaining set goals such as last semester when I decided to enter for the Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Scholarship (HOBY) Award during which I had to set certain goals to succeed in the next step. Through the entire process, I used optimism to guide me through my challenging goals which helped me to obtain the scholarship. Not only can optimism lead to success in educational goals but in athletic goals as well. During any athletic game, in this case for me softball, I found that using optimism to learn from errors can lead to accomplishing any goal easier. Instead of rejecting the goal after a few mistakes, use optimism to learn from the mistakes for the future. Using the mentality of optimism within a goal can lead to great success in accomplishing any set goal whether it be educational or

Roots Of Optimism

From your first breath to your first word, you are taught something everyday. Maybe from your mom, or your dad. Your first smile or clap, optimism comes from that. You learn that smiling makes everyone else smile, so you do it. You learn that your parents want you to to clap, so they will laugh. They taught you at a young age to do positive things. You grow up and take those things with you wherever you go. You see, your root of optimism comes from the simplest things you don't even realize. My root of optimism comes from many things. One of which, is all of the things around me. The media, Life lessons, and different perspectives are the roots of my optimsm. I believe that the roots of my optimism have made me who i am today, Some people think the media is true, and some people think different. It all depends on the person. In my opinion there are true and false advertisements in the media. I grew up only looking at the writer or pop stars opinion, and not focusing on my own. As i got older the media taught me some important things,to focus on my own opinion, and not on anyone else's. When i used to drive on the highway, i would look at the signs of the...show more content...

I was praised when I needed to be praised, and scolded when I needed to be. This is a process that shapes a good child. For example, if a child threw their trash away, they might get a piece of candy. When they said a naughty word, they might have to go to time out. My parents taught me these lessons, but in a more optimistic way. Focusing on the bright side, even in a bad situation. This brought a lot of positivity to my life, threw an optimistic way. It helps me as an older child to not be frustrated as much. Jimmy Dean once said " I can't change the direction of the wind, but i can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." This quote reminds me of the life lessons i was taught. If one solution doesn't work, try Get more content

Optimism Optimism

Optimism is a mental attitude or world view that interprets situations and events as being best (optimized), meaning that in some way for factors that may not be fully comprehended, the present moment is in an optimum state. The concept is typically extended to include the attitude of hope for future conditions unfolding as optimal as well. The more broad concept of optimism is the understanding that all of nature, past, present and future, operates by laws of optimization along the lines of Hamilton's principle of optimization in the realm of physics. This understanding, although criticized by counter views such as pessimism, idealism and realism, leads to a state of mind that...show more content... He hoped that society would eventually reach the state where calm reason would replace all violence and force, that mind could eventually make matter subservient to it, and that intelligence could discover the secret of immortality. Much of this philosophy is exemplified in the Houyhnhnms of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Panglossianism

The term "panglossianism" describes baseless optimism of the sort exemplified by the beliefs of Pangloss from Voltaire's Candide, which are the opposite of his fellow traveller Martin's pessimism and emphasis on free will. The phrase "panglossian pessimism" has been used to describe the pessimistic position that, since this is the best of all possible worlds, it is impossible for anything to get any better.

The panglossian paradigm is a term coined by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin to refer to the notion that everything has specifically adapted to suit specific purposes. Instead, they argue, accidents and exaptation (the use of old features for new purposes) play an important role in the process of evolution. Some other scientists however argue the implication that many (or most) adaptionists are panglossians is a straw man. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time Michael Shermer relates Frank J. Tipler to Voltaire's character Pangloss to show how clever people deceive Get more content

Imagine living in a tiny hut, wearing rags, and never knowing where your next meal will come from. In 1929, America's economy collapsed and the people who already had little had nothing, and the people who had it all lost it all. For 10 grueling years, all over America people were faced with poverty. But for 10 years people had hope. They would hope for their next meal. They would hope for the sun to shine, and that's what the world gains from optimism, hope. Nowadays the world isn't so perfect. But if we have an optimistic outlook then we can make the world perfect! By having an optimistic outlook on life now we can show hope for the world. Even though the definition of optimism is "a person who tends to be hopeful and confident about the future success of something," I never put a thought about the definition. I thought about how if you are optimistic about a particular thing then you see the potential in it. You have hope in the particular...show more content...

We look into our futures and we hope that certain things will happen and certain things won't. It can also be something as simple as expecting something to happen weather we expect something good to happen or something bad to happen. As human beings we have the natural urge to hope. We hope to find love. We hope to be successful in whatever we do. We all hope! It is like it is hardwired in our systems because we all hope unconsciously. We do it without thinking about it. We might hope for a good grade on our test but not even really put thought into it. For some people this is a natural character trait for others it can be a task to try to be optimistic, but at certain times in our lives we have all been optimistic. When I think about being optimistic I usually tend to think about hope. I feel like optimism and hope are synchronized like a clock, because you can't have a "clock'' that works without having both of the hands. In this case optimism and hope

Optimism And Relationships

Optimism's relationship with well–being and satisfaction with life has been well studied, even before positive psychology was seen as a major topic in psychology. Optimism is positively correlated with life satisfaction (Szczesniak & Soares, 2011). A students degree of optimism is a predictor of satisfaction with life and distress in college (Brissette, Scheier, & Carver, 2002; Yalcin, 2011). Newlyweds who were higher in optimism solved problems more constructively, had lower decline in marital well–being in the first year of marriage, and were better able to handle relationship trouble (Andersson, 2012a; Neff & Geers, 2013). A husbands optimism is associated with marital satisfaction early on while a wife's optimism is associated with greater...show more content...

There are differences and problems that still need to be clarified. For the sake of this article, optimism and pessimism are shown as one dimension, with someone low in optimism being high in pessimism. However, there are contradictory ideas about whether optimism and pessimism are unidimensional or two dimensions. There is evidence to support the theory that they are unidimensional with low optimism being the same as high pessimism and vise versa (Rauch, Schweizer, & Moosebougger, 2007). However, there is evidence to support the theory that they are two separate dimensions and people can be high or low in both optimism and pessimism (Herzberg, Glaesmer, & Hoyer, 2006). Additionally, optimism studies are largely done on European Americans so there is no clarification on the universality of the results. People from eastern cultures experience more positive emotions when they are experiencing negative emotions so they might be more optimistic than western Get more content

Examples Of Optimism And Courage

Using Optimism to Defeat Conflict

As philosopher Nicholas M. Butler states, "Optimism is the foundation of courage." Keeping this in mind, "Dear Miss Breed", written by Joanne Oppenheim, tells the story of a young girl named Louise who was interned, but had an optimistic outlook on life, leading her to appreciate everything around her. In Susan Campbell Bartoletti's "Hitler Youth", Sophie Scholl had the courage to stand up and do what she believed was right. And in Elie Wiesel's "Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech", he emphasized the need to be optimistic in times of conflict. All of these great leaders have had great courage and chosen to be optimistic in depressing times. Although it can be argued thatoptimism and courage are irrelevant to...show more content...

In Sophie Scholl's story, she writes to her boyfriend "'I don't like to think about it, but soon there is going to be nothing left but politics, and as long as it's so confused and evil, it's cowardly to turn away from it'" (Bartoletti). In Sophie's point of view, cowardliness leads no no resolutions. She believes people must face the conflict and accept the consequences. According to the article, "The Neutral Basis of Optimism and Pessimism", "The pessimist . . . observes mainly the negative aspects of everything around. Thinking of all the potential dangers and pitfalls on the way, the pessimist is likely to have little hope for the future"(Hect). Pessimism shows weakness in one's ability to resolve conflict successfully. Allowing fear and discouragement into one's mind tends to curtail the ability to reach full potential. University of Notre Dame College writes, "Avoiding or withdrawing from a conflict requires no courage or consideration for the other party. By avoiding the conflict, you essentially pretend that it never happened or doesn't exist." Turning away from conflict is inadvisable because it means are turning away from an opportunity to grow. One does not learn if they cannot face conflict. Therefore, expressing a pessimistic or fearful outlook on life does not lead to growth, learning, or successful conflict

Get more content

What Is Optimism Essay

As a human being living in this ruthless world, the perspective of how we see life plays great role in the success and happiness of a person. Optimism is seeing positive aspects of life. I as an immigrant I have had experienced the ups and downs of life to an extent where all I have to hold unto was hope and faith. My motto in life is seeing the light in all the darkness that was surrounding me. That is how I lived and will live. Being an optimist person has helped me to be more peaceful to myself and more confident. Living as an immigrant in the US is really hard especially for a teenager who was growing up in a totally different culture, experience, life, and people, custom not to mention the language barriers that make it worse. Optimism

Get more content

Is the glass half–empty or half full? Optimism, the outlook towards the glass half full, gives the inclination towards the positive outlook of events and circumstances and defines the attitude of an individual. Whether the situation is pleasant or unpleasant, on optimist will take a hopeful, positive spin on it, expecting a decent outcome. Does possessing an optimistic trait affect the performance of a task in such a way to improve upon it and does it have something to do with confidence of an individual? Performance is an undertaking that gages the quality, quantity, completeness, and speed of an obligation. Performance can include many decision–making skills that affect the outcome of the function at hand. The current study delves into testing the relationship between optimism and decision–making. It studies whether personality differences influence an individual's perceptions of decisions and performance. Does optimism have some bearing on a person's ability to assess information and profile it to control their performance? The effects of optimism on performance have had varied outcomes in different studies, conducted by psychologists such as Jafri or Szalma, Hancock, Dember and Warm. In one study conducted by Md. Haasan Jafri, optimism, when tested along with self–efficacy, flexibility, and aspiration, has shown to have an encouraging outcome on behavior, fulfilling obligations, and academic performance. The participants that possessed higher levels of all

Get more content

10 Great Tips to Being Optimistic Being optimistic is the main principle for most people. We may often hear the statement about "be an optimist, not a pessimist!" shouted by people. Sometimes you do it for yourself too. When facing such a failure or problem, this will not only help to relieve your heart. Being optimistic will help someone to be healthy in physical and mental. An optimist will find the best way in any circumstance and hope for every good thing can come to him/her. You may have gone through thousands of hard times. However, if you are a born optimist then you will not care of anything destructing you. Moreover, ways of thinking, taking actions, and putting a decision can create a different result when being optimistic. So far it is easy to be an optimist but in fact, be an optimist is just a theory. No matter how hard you have tried then still sometimes you cannot handle your heart and emotion. Some pessimists may say if they cannot deal it like a magic. You cannot be the pessimist for a whole life. Dream would be just a dream when you do nothing. So there are many easy ways on how to act like an optimist. These tips will help you to evoke the optimistic spirit....show more content... Understand what optimist is The first way is to know what seems to be related to the word of optimist. The answer is positive. So make friends with the positive. It does not mean you ignore every difficulty you face actually. It is about finding the positive within an understanding. You need to believe if there will always an opportunity around the problem to stay in positive thinking.

2.Find positive surrounding It is not only about the inside. It is also about how the outsiders affect you. Surrounded by positive people will be the best therapy. They will be supportive as well as giving you more

Get more content

Optimism is "a disposition or tendency to look to the more favourable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favourable condition" ("optimism", n.d.). Counter to optimism is pessimism which is "the tendency to anticipate only bad or undesirable outcomes" ("pessimism", n.d.). When looking at optimism it is important to look at the opposing side to emphasis the unwelcome effects of thinking negatively in terms of wellbeing which in the long term could be detrimental to health and prosperity. Generally, optimism has been related to better subjective wellbeing in challenging and difficult moments throughout life and it has been found to be consistent with the ability to cope better in complex and sufferable situations (Carver et al., 2010). Additional to this, optimism is said to improve upon various outcomes in relation to: mental health, physical health, performance in daily activities and personal relationships (Scheier & Carver, 1985).

One particular piece of research has looked directly at optimism and pessimism in relation to postpartum depression. Carver and Gaines conducted this research by looking at life changing events; in this particular case, the birth of a child. One assessment of depressive mood and optimism was made several weeks before the birth of the child and the second assessment was 3 weeks postpartum where their emotional wellbeing was measured by a scale named the LOT (Life Orientation Test derived from Carver and Scheier*) and another scale

Have you ever heard the saying, "There's light at the end of the tunnel,"? Or maybe, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade,"? Both are examples of optimism. Optimism is a way of looking on the bright side during tough situations. Winston Churchill once said, 'A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty'. Optimism has been proven to have both positive mental and physical health benefits, as well as making people more successful in life.

Get more content

Looking at the bright side and noticing what is right as opposed to what is wrong is not normal for most people. It is commonly thought that being optimistic is not being realistic and even though that is true for some people, there are ways to be optimistic in a healthy manner that can help one see life's challenges realistically even when times get tough. Being optimistic is a skill that takes effort and thought but spending the time to work on cultivating optimism can be life changing. Cultivating optimism is one of the happiness enhancing strategies that has been shown to increase happiness levels and positive thoughts about the future, which is the concept which I experimented with when I conducted the Best Possible Selves activity....show more content...

This has had an impact on my life growing up because I was bullied for a majority of my life and going to Disney was the one place where I did not feel judged. I want to be able to spread that magic and joy to other children, especially those who have similar stories, by making them feel special and included because I know how life changing that was for me. The third goal I have is to lead an authentic life with a partner who cares about me and allows me to be my true self. I believe that in society people work too hard to please others and fit into the mold of what is viewed as "normal." I know that this lifestyle does not allow for authenticity or creativity because I have adhered to it for several years and am now starting to face the consequences of not being my true self around my family and friends. I want to be with someone who makes me feel celebrated and special for who I am whether it be having funky colored hair, going to Disney World as an adult, saying sarcastic funny comments, or whatever other aspects make up my being. While creating these goals for myself I was able to think about more cohesive steps that will lead me in the right direction towards achieving them. In order to become a successful journalist, I plan to continue studying journalism in college and write for

Get more content

Optimism can be defined as "Hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something" (en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition, n.d.) or more specifically as "extent to which people hold generalized favorable expectancies for their future" (Birkeland, Blix, & Heir, 2007). It's a characteristic trait which is unique and observed in certain individuals. It's a form of mental state in which, one believes that the outcome of some specific task or result, will be positive or good. A widely used idiom for explainingoptimism over pessimism, in a simplified manner is by illustrating the example of a glass with water at the half point. In this specific scenario, an optimistic person is said to observe the glass as half full because of...show more content...

The individual will mentally prepare themselves to tackle the pain and hardship, they are going through. All these can only be accomplished by having an optimistic way of thinking. Worst case scenario, in case of a terminal illness, during their last few days, rather than being depressed and filled with regrets, a positive mindset can work wonders by making the individual realize that he should cherish each and every second of his life and moment is precious and valuable.

Another perspective of being optimistic, is its importance and necessity in work space. It is almost a near disaster to imagine a lack of optimistic attitude in an organizational set up. "The limited research on optimism shows that it boosts the performance of employees in certain kind of jobs. If research shows significant relationship between optimism levels and job productivity, the management must consider measuring optimism during their selection process and hire employees with high levels of optimism by filtering out the pessimistic ones" (Rana & Chadha, 2017). Optimistic employees are a crucial component of any team or a work force. The productivity and efficiency of an organization is also primarily affected by the character, behavior and attitude of the employees. It is essential to ensure that a positive work space is maintained in an organization and various activities and strategies must be adopted in order to promote an optimistic work force. This further enhances the creativity of Get

Optimism. A meaningless chain of letters. But no, it's important. Are you ever optimistic? That answer is different for every person you ask. Why? Because their definition of that word "optimism" is never the same. Optimism means you're hopeful and confident about the future and or the successful outcome of something. So I'll ask the question again. Are you ever optimistic? Has your answer changed? Even a little. The in almost every case is "yes", even if it was just hoping your team wins its game. The world has a whole is a wonderful place to live and breathe. But, think about it. Would it always be that way? Optimism is a power mindset that has made where we live great, and that goes for everyone. Because no matter how hard anything is...it

Jon Jusufi 8th grade

Sir Winston Churchill once said: " A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." If I think I cannot do something, after a while I will not be capable of doing it. And vice versa if I truly believe that I can do something, I will try my best to do it. And this is not only about actions we are capable of doing or not. Most importantly, it is about what we think we are. If you are an optimist you love your life and think of yourself and the others around you as great people. If you are a pessimist you do not really care about who you are and you do not give your life a meaning. Optimism makes us have dreams. Those dreams eventually turn into goals and to accomplish those goals we get perseverant, we care about the people around us and we try to live a healthy live.

Optimism leads to perseverance. If we really believe that what we think is right, optimism us protect it with all we have because we are what we ...show more content... It is in human nature to work and live together with other people and to give a part of ourselves to the others around us. Optimism is very important here because an optimist tries to make the world a better place by making the people better people. Optimists help everyone in their community as much as they can in every possible way. Sometimes people just need to hear some good words and that is what optimists are great at. You have probably heard the story about the one bad apple that turned all the good apples bad. Optimism is the exact opposite because one optimist has the power to make all the people around him or her to see life from a positive point of view. This is one of my favorite things about optimism because optimists do not only help themselves, they help the world. And by helping the world they help themselves because the people that you once helped will help you achieve your

Get more content