There are some people who are always seeking joy. For the optimists, and I definitely include myself in that group, everything will always work out. The money will be there, the vacation will happen, the book will sell. If it doesn’t work out in the way they hope, then something better will come along and take care of things.
Then there are those who go through life guarded against disappointment. They worry a lot. It’s more of, this is what I’ll have to do because the money isn’t there. We’ll be lucky to take a vacation next year. Selling a book is a crapshoot.
I understand the pessimist’s viewpoint – or as a friend of mine would say, the “realist’s” viewpoint. They’ve been burned. Life’s hit them over the head a time or two, and they’re just hoping that nothing jumps out at them and swings the bat one more time. I get it. I sympathize.
But I can’t live that way. I HAVE to generate positivity. It’s hard-wired in me, like my green eyes and slender ankles. As I get older, I’m getting more mellow about it, too. I love surprising people – holding the door open for someone younger than me with their hands full, and giving them a warm smile. Waving folks into traffic ahead of me. Chatting in an upbeat manner to complete strangers.
I find that I like positivity in my online life, too. I’ve actually un-followed people on Twitter because of the language they’d use, and the negativity they sprayed on my day. I’m no prude – I can fling epithets around with the best of them, but I don’t want to see them on Twitter from people I barely know, ranting about their personal life. (That’s what a blog is for, lol!)
Cheerful people, on line and in person, uplift my day. Make me more able to go about with a smile on my face. Cheerful people generate a feeling of well-being in others. I am gung-ho about cheer, and positivity, and making my little corner of the world a sunnier place.
Which are you? A “realist” or an “optimist”?
I’m an optimist with a cranky side. Like you I’m hard wired positive and lately I can’t seem to call up as much patience as I used to. It’s a ‘oh please, really?’ syndrome. All part of the fun of being human
I know! Right now I’m constantly dealing with saying to myself “seriously? seriously!” about traffic, or people in the store…whatever. My patience is thin as well. But I’m deliberately trying, during those *argh* moments, to be nice. It’s an interesting exercise…
What a great topic to blog about! I’m so jealous of folks such as yourself.
You may not know this from my sparking personality or my endless charm, but pessimism is genetically hardwired into me on a cellular level. In fact, if genetics didn’t take care of it, the way my mother brought me up did. I mean no one expects a single mother with two kids (who in her best year made $18,000) to kick her heels, but she certainly didn’t do herself any favors with the “world is out to get me” attitude. It’s honestly tragic to watch all the ways in which her outlook on the world has sabotaged her over the years. So in short, I have to make a conscious effort every day to fight my default “glass half empty” mode, but I would like to think I’m winning that battle.
Oh honey. I never would have known! Sometimes the way we are raised force us to go in the opposite direction, just for sanity’s sake. Good for you for choosing your attitude – for that’s what it is, you know. Whatever is hardwired in us can be changed through circumstance. I’d like to think you’re choosing your positive attitude because that’s who you really are.
Hugs!
I tend to be happy but I’m also moody. I try not to let my moodiness bring others down though. I much prefer to be a “light.”