Fun fact of the day: I walked into the same wrong classroom for my criminal justice discussion three weeks in a row, today being my third week. I’m pretty sure you can see by now that me sucking at learning from my mistakes is a recurring theme…

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Topic #32: Are you an optimist, a pessimist, or something else?

Although I don’t necessarily always have a grave attitude toward everything in my life, I would still consider myself a pessimist. I found over the years of my life that being a pessimist tends to keep me more satisfied in the long run and has many other more positive effects than being an optimist would have.

If someone is an optimist, they expect the best to happen all the time. But as we all know, the best things don’t necessarily always happen to everyone all the time. These optimists are prone to failure at one point in their lives, and when they do fail, they will be put down because they don’t get as much as they expect to get out of the situation. Even when something average happens (as in, not the best thing that could happen, but also not the worst thing that could happen), optimists are prone to still feeling bad because they still could not accomplish everything to their expectations.

On the other hand, if someone is a pessimist, they always prepare for the worst to happen. Sometimes, the worst does happen, but as we all know, the worst things don’t necessarily happen to everyone all the time. Sometimes, this pessimist might get the best result possible out of a situation, which would make the pessimist ecstatic. Even when something average happens (as in, not the best thing that could happen, but also not the worst thing that could happen), the pessimist would still be expecting the worst, and the average result would still be better than the worst. Thus, overall, optimists are more prone to negative results than pessimists are.

Some people argue that being optimistic psychologically helps you be more happy. However, I believe that it is more of an issue of how individuals want to approach life. If they want to have a false sense of happiness all the time, even though they might not always be satisfied in the long run, then they should be an optimist. Instead, if a more realistic and logical approach to life is preferred, they should be a pessimist. I don’t even consider pessimism a negative thing, as preparing for the unexpected makes me feel more secure about many things, which translates to a sense of tranquility and happiness.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 10

Number of times I did my own laundry: 0