Generally speaking, we view optimism as a good thing. Optimism as opposed to pessimism; positive as opposed to negative. When someone claims to be a pessimist, we assume the person is a downer, while an optimist is someone who is fun to be around. In the same breath, however, we could say it is the difference of idealism against realism. An idealist is a person who strives for the absolute best (the ideal) in a situation, a person known otherwise as an optimist. By contrast, therefore, a realist must be someone who expects the worst. Is being realistic such a bad quality? No, we would not say outright: idealism equates to positivity and realism to negativity. To my mind, idealism and optimism may be synonymous, but realism is certainly not pessimism.
Optimism is a difficult state of mind. It takes work. Any opportunity that goes wrong is a proverbial chink in the armor. For pessimists, on the other hand, they can offer a casual accepting shrug to any incoming problem. Even though optimists are, by nature, positive people, their attitudes are often met with annoyance by other people. As if optimistic people are too clueless to realize what is actually going on, their benevolent actions are nearly invalidated. This is not very fair. If we've already established optimism is broadly positive, where is the logic in attacking it? Staying optimistic is worth the effort. It's what makes having a favorite sports team fun. Optimism puts the excitement in anticipation.
Conversely, optimism can lead to heightened disappointment. Perhaps, it is the outward expression of disappointment which gives optimism a bad rap. If we are constantly expecting the best, it is more likely to fall short of expectations than to meet them. In fact, it seems optimistic anticipation is directly related to disappointment. In any case, if we could monitor our levels of anticipation and disappointment, optimism could be a more attainable state of mind. As for the phrase, "cautiously optimistic," could a person reasonably claim instead to be "hopefully pessimistic"? Unfortunately, this is not part of regular vernacular. Simply put, optimism is one complex feeling.
Everyone could attempt to be a little more optimistic. Simply being optimistic is not a choice, to be sure, like any emotion is not a choice. I know that. But attempting to minimize poor expectations while opening a mind to the possibility of a good outcome has got to be an overall good thing. An optimist (probably) goes through life with fewer stresses. A scientific person (so, not myself) could go so far as to argue optimistic people live longer. They might even be more fun to be around, in the long run.
A realist is someone who expects something somewhere in the middle, not the best possible outcome but nowhere near the worst. A realist would be far too neutral to claim one side over the other. Instead, we should call a pessimist--join me, I'm smithing a word--a "despairist," one who expects the absolute worst. This is a far more accurate comparison. Honestly, most people are mostly realists most of the time because we live in a predictable world. I know I am. Sure, it's easy to get excited about one thing or dread another. But isn't it better to be happy along the way? If we could shift our expectations a slight fraction for the better--and allow others to do so as well--we might end up a happier place.
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