Optimism Helps to Live a Healthier and Happier Life

The great Mahatma Gandhi once stated that a man becomes what he believes himself to be. By continually declaring that a particular task is hard to undertake, the possibility of that becoming a reality is very high. Contrarily, if the same individual believes that the task is easy and within their scope, then they will acquire the capability of undertaking it even though they may be pessimistic about it in the beginning. What Mahatma Gandhi was emphasizing on is that thinking more positively or being optimistic leads to a healthier and happy life. Optimism is derived from the Latin word ‘optimus’ meaning best. Optimists are individuals that tend to see the best in every situation and visualize things to turn out better in the future. I have an optimistic nature. This virtue has greatly helped in bringing out the best in people. I shall exemplify situations in which my optimism has been of great help to me.

In the world today, people are faced with all kinds of negativity. On switching on the news, it is common for one to hear that a tornado hit a particular area, the civil wars in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. According to Dana Bash, a chief political correspondent at Cable News Network (CNN), negative news sells. In a world surrounded by all sort of pessimism, being optimistic shines a bright light to a rather dark world (Gregg et al., 2015). There is this incident where I was camping with my friends. After going deep in the woods, we were lost. Everyone in the camp was frustrated as we had left all our belongings on the camping site and all hope was lost. We walked for several hours without seeing any life form. I kept on encouraging my counterparts to stay positive, and that help will come, or we will find our way. Everyone grew weary and discouraged when darkness was setting on. No sooner had we given up than we saw a bright light beaming in front of us. Throughout the journey, I kept on encouraging my friends, and in the end, it paid off. We were rescued and escorted to safer grounds. It was at this point that I realized that the basis of optimism is sheer terror.

As a student, there is always the constant fear of not passing exams. The fear can be made worse by the realization that the syllabus was not fully covered. Exhibiting optimism is important as it will water down fear and success will be achieved (Berlant and Gail, 2011). In my last year of high school, I was faced by the same challenge. Our mathematics tutor, Mr. White had fallen ill, and there was no immediate replacement as we had just a week to the main examination. The sheer fact that he was behind as far as covering the syllabus is concerned, sent a chill down my spine. At that point, I remembered the words of the great Lucille Ball, “One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” On the day of the exam, I always reminded myself these same words. When the results were out, I was surprised to be among the best students in Mr. White’s subject. For sure keeping a positive mind pays.

Positive thinking has been attributed to mental health. A pessimistic person has better reasoning power. I vividly remember a point of my life where I was chosen as the head of procurement in a department where I was working. It was a sales job, and like any other sales job, my group and I were entitled to convince customers to buy the products that the company was selling. Everyone in the group was making great sales apart from John, a new employee that was fresh out of college. As the head of the department, it was my duty to check with every employee after a couple of hours. I noted that every time I went to John’s table, he was more discouraged than the previous time. So I decided to sit with him as one potential buyer approached. He went through the whole process and in the end, the potential buyer was not convinced to buy the product. Poor John was greatly affected. There and then I realized that his negative attitude when presenting the product made the customers shun away from his table. I took the initiative of encouraging him and pointed out that putting on a smile and presenting with enthusiasm made any customer want to buy the product. In the end, John’s sales were the second highest that day. As Sridevi pointed out “what you feel inside reflects on your face. So be happy and confident all the time (Sridevi and Srinivasan 31).

In conclusion, being pessimistic hurts how an individual views the world. An optimist, on the other hand, views situations and the world with a positive attitude. Over the years, maintaining positivity has been attributed to excellent mental health. Fear is a great hindrance to being optimistic. As such, one should come up with ways to curb it.

Works Cited

1. Berlant, Lauren Gail. Cruel optimism. Vol. 226. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.
2. Gregg, Brian T., et al. "The Kawa river model: Applying theory to develop interventions for combat and operational stress control." Occupational Therapy in Mental Health 31.4 (2015): 366-384.
3. Sridevi, G., and P. T. Srinivasan. "Psychological capital: a review of evolving literature." Colombo Business Journal 3.1 (2012): 25-39.