How to Become an Optimist in 5 Steps

What is an optimist?

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, an optimist is "someone who always believes that good things will happen”. Optimists enjoy life and see the world in bright colours. Regardless of adversities they are able to find the positive side and advantages of a given situation, because they realize that the bad period can’t last forever. Trusting that they can have an impact on the course of their lives, they never give up and always fight for their happiness. As a result, these people smile more often, don’t complain, have more friends, and are more satisfied with life. Of course, like everyone else, the optimists also make mistakes and experience failures. But what sets them apart is the fact that they can draw conclusions for the future without letting negative emotions take over.

The Advantages of Optimism

Many studies in psychology suggest that an optimistic outlook has many advantages. It is believed that optimists live longer and enjoy better physical and mental health. Statistically, people who have a positive attitude to life achieve better results at work, and have better relationships with other people. Looking solely at the health benefits of an optimistic nature has shown that optimism is closely linked to lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared to pessimists. What's more, optimists respond better to stress and have a stronger immune system, so they recover faster from illness or surgery.

Some experts are wondering whether optimism makes people healthier, or simply healthy people are more optimistic about the world. Research published in 2008 in Harvard Men's Health has shown, however, that even when suffering from ill health or disease, optimists continue to have a positive outlook on life.

Optimism makes us feel more motivated and generally improves our mood, and therefore we achieve more success. Having a positive mood gives us confidence and makes it easier to bear adversity and makes us feel happier in general.

Optimists vs Pessimists

In general we can say that most people are optimistic, but we know well that there are also individuals who don’t share this approach to life. People with a more pessimistic outlook are the people who see only the negative sides of life and always seem to have gloomy predictions about the future. The world since the dawn of history has always been divided into groups of pessimists and optimists.

An American survey found that 50% of adults considered themselves optimists, 4% were considered pessimists, while 43% said they were somewhere in the middle (3% did not know or refused to respond). So what makes us an optimist or a pessimist?

What Causes us to be Pessimists or Optimists?

The factors that determine who we are and what we have mould our character. They include our genes, life experiences (the environment), and what we see and experience around us. People look at the world and judge different events through the prism of their beliefs. Our opinions on different topics can be traced back to our childhood. This affects the atmosphere at home, our relationships with our loved ones, the difficult situations we experience, and how they affect our lives. All these elements have a huge impact on whether we will look at the world positively in adult life or whether we will belong to the pessimists group.

Dr Agnieszka Czerw from SWPS University has shown that the level of optimism increases with age and peaks when we are about 35 years old, but then we gradually become more pessimistic after that age. Research shows that young people and the elderly are the least optimistic.

Interestingly, recent research has shown that the optimists and pessimists with the exact same type of upbringing have developed different attitudes and beliefs. It turns out that this is because both groups of people focus on different factors in the environment. And while pessimists seem to be mostly aware of the negative side, optimists pay much more attention to positive information, which has been confirmed by careful brain analysis of both types of people.

However, since it has been proven that pessimists have a lower life expectancy, it may be worthwhile to consider what to do to become a happy optimist rather than a miserable malcontent. How to make the glass, which is always half empty, suddenly half full? Can optimism be learned? It turns out that yes it can! Read our guide to find out how.

How to become optimistic?

Everybody has 40,000 to 60,000 different thoughts each day. Interestingly, on average 85% of the things we worry about have a positive or neutral ending. Although negative thoughts are normal and are experienced by everyone, scientists have proven that excessive worry leads to feelings of anxiety, helplessness and depression.

Scientists say that being optimistic can be learned. This sounds too good to be true! Can we really change our mind-set so that the world suddenly becomes more colourful, and negative situations don’t put us into a state of depression and helplessness?

As we have already mentioned, whether we are in the group of optimists or pessimists is as the result of various different factors. Of course, nobody can change their DNA. On the other hand, we can certainly have some influence over ​ the environment we live in and what experiences we have. Everybody has the inclination to be both optimistic and pessimistic at different times. Scientists have shown that we can influence how our brain records and analyses various information from the environment, so we can overcome pessimism and develop a more optimistic mind-set. This allows us to consciously develop a tendency towards positive thinking, and most importantly it is not at all difficult.

Step 1 - Stop complaining!

Although having a good old moan can bring relief from stress and tension, this feeling of relief is short-lived. Continuously focusing on the negatives of the world around us is not a good habit to get into. Constantly complaining does not bring us long-term benefits and above all prevents us from taking positive steps which could change our lives for the better. So try to get over this fatal addiction and just stop complaining.

Step 2 - Surround yourself with positive people

Optimism is contagious. Therefore, try to surround yourself with people who look at the world positively. People who complain all the time and only see the negative side of things will make it difficult for you to make changes. If you want to leave pessimism behind you, spend as much time as you can with those who will help and support you with positive thinking.

Step 3 - Be Realistic

Never give up on your dreams, but it is worth trying to keep our expectations at a realistic level. Being realistic will allow you to keep a sense of perspective on how you view different events, because everyone knows that life is not just about the good times. Everyone is exposed to failure and disappointment from time to time. The key, however, is how we shake off such situations and what we do to achieve our goals.

Step 4 - Focus on the present and the future

There is no need to focus on the past, as every day has new challenges for us. Every stage in your life has its end, so even if you have not succeeded yet, there is no need to give up. Accept your past as something that cannot be changed, but which does not dictate your present or your future. It is better to learn to appreciate the present, to roll up your sleeves, to go to work and to look serenely to the future!

Step 5 - Learn to appreciate what you already have

Start appreciating everything you have around you and think about what you can do to make your life better. It is much better to focus on positives. Be grateful for what you have no matter how small these things may seem. Think about the good things that happened to you on that day, and in time you will realize that you are letting more and more happiness into your life!

Sources:

blog.wellcome.ac.uk
neuwritesd.org
ourworldindata.org
personal.psu.edu wikipedia.org
psychologia.edu
statista.com
tvn24.pl