| | Be so strong that nothing can disturb
your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you
meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the
sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and
expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are
about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater
achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving
yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry
and too noble for anger.
Christian D. Larsen
Optimism is the belief that our future will contain factors that
we value.
 | Optimism has various aspects:
 | Thoughts. We think that our future will be pleasant. |
| Imagination. Our fantasies depict favorable conditions. |
| Energy tones. We feel hope and excitement regarding our future. |
| Actions. We act as if the desired conditions will occur. We attend
classes to prepare for the job promotion that we believe that we will attain. |
|
| Optimism is not the same as positive thinking. |
| Our perceptions.
| Optimism. We perceive adversity but we believe that we can overcome it. |
| Positive thinking. We tend to deny the existence of the adversity as we
gaze through rose colored glasses. |
|
| Our predictions.
| Optimism. We believe that we will pass a test for which we have
studied. |
| Positive thinking. We hope that we will pass a test for which we may or
may not have studied. |
|
| Our actions.
| Optimism. We work toward our dreams, because we believe that we can
achieve our dreams. Our optimism gives us a general boldness while we cover
all bases. |
| Positive thinking. We focus our attention on the desired conditions. |
|
The benefits from optimism.
| Optimism allows motivation. We are more likely to take action toward a
goal if we feel that it is attainable. In contrast, pessimists don't even try. |
| Optimism maintains our momentum despite the inevitable failures. When
we experience failures along the way, we don't give up easily. Tenacity is
essential when we encounter setbacks on the way to a reachable goal. We
learn from the setbacks, and then we try a different approach. In contrast,
pessimists give up, and they succumb to depression and apathy. |
| Optimism can help us to sustain a mental focus. We can direct our
thoughts toward constructive problem solving, instead of stagnating in the
distractions of pessimism and worry. We can be equally distracted by
optimistic fantasies of our future wealth. |
| Optimism provides an expansive field in which the ego can function
properly. We are giving permission for the ego to work toward our goals.
In contrast, pessimism cripples the ego's operation by giving implied
instructions that its natural goals are not to be attained. |
Techniques for developing optimism.
| Design-work. We cultivate energy tones such as hope, enthusiasm,
self confidence, and pleasant anticipation.
| Affirmation. "Life is good.", "My happiness will
continue into the future.", "I accept responsibility for my
future.", "Things work out well because I do whatever needs to be
done.", "Good things happen to me.". |
| Directed imagination. We can visualize ourselves in situations where we
are successful and happy. We imagine ourselves living in the home that we
expect to buy someday. |
| Modeling. We act as if the desired conditions are already occurring.
We are optimistic that we will be able to afford a new car, so we visit
dealerships to look at the cars. |
| Intuition. Intuition can guide us toward goals that are likely to be
attainable because they are supported by the dynamics that are perceived by
intuition, therefore, our optimism is well founded. |
| Self image. We can be optimistic about success only if our self image
says that we tend to be a successful person. |
| Recognition of positive patterns. We sustain our optimism by discerning a
pattern of success in our life. Every experience is either a success or it is a
learning experience in which we successfully learned information and skills that
will increase our possibility of success in the future. We acknowledge our
failures for just enough time to learn from them, but then we return our
attention to our successes, and we study the pattern of success by which we are
increasing our knowledge and abilities. In contrast, pessimists see a pattern of
failure, so they cling tighter to their cynicism as a way of avoiding
disappointment therefore they don't anticipate success. |
| Faith. Optimism is a reliance on our own abilities and the general
goodness of human life. Faith employs a larger viewpoint, that the universe
itself is based on principles of fairness and abundance. |
| Material preparedness. We don't rely on mere wishful thinking. We perform
the tasks that make those wishes more likely to manifest themselves. If we are
optimistic about our future financial security, we back up our optimism with
action. |
|
My sun sets to rise
again.
Robert Browning
Next topic: Goals |
