Attitude and Results
I spend about 20% of my “waking hours” reading stuff. I absolutely love learning new things on a variety of topics. I want to include more educational or inspirational material in these blogs. Ideas which can hopefully benefit you guys in different ways.
You probably already guessed the meaning of the term “waking hours”. It is a common expression to refer to the time a person is awake in a normal day. Here is an example:
He spends almost all of his “waking hours” thinking about ways to earn more money.
Ok, I’m starting to get off topic and I want to start writing about what I originally planned on.
I recently read a scientific study about optimists and pessimists. ”Optimists” are optimistic people, people who tend to look at things positively. ”Pessimists” are the opposite.
I think everyone already knows that optimists are more likely to succeed than pessimists. This part is nothing new.
Here is the interesting thing I learned: Optimists are much LESS accurate in their predictions than pessimists. Basically, optimists are more “wrong” in their guesses.
Pessimists are much more realistic. They aren’t just more “negative” than optimists, they are also more likely to make a reasonable guess.
So optimists have crazy and unrealistic beliefs about how good their future is going to be, and this helps them in life big time!
Think about what this means. Optimists are willing to try new things. They don’t fear failure as much as pessimists do because they think everything is going to be awesome for them. They are more likely to learn English faster, they are more likely to get better jobs, they are more likely to get a perfect body if they go to the gym, they are more likely to date who they most want to date.
Pessimists are more likely to quit things before they really start trying. This is sad. They can already see the negative things that might happen if they try. They might think, “What if I fail”? ”What if I lose my money”? ”What if she or he says no when I ask them on a date”? ”What if it takes me 1 year to learn great English instead of only 1 week”?
The truth is that pessimists are often very intelligent people. They think a lot. They often think too much. This can be a problem. It can make them afraid to try. The truth is that neither optimists nor pessimists knows exactly what the future will be like, but at least optimists will try things and take active steps to get the better life they want. It is this positive action that makes them more likely to succeed than pessimists. This is why being smart isn’t always enough.
So, if you are a pessimist, which we all are sometimes, you should seriously learn from this. I’m often a pessimist in my own life. The thing to learn is that it’s better to just try things instead of focussing and worrying what could go wrong. Stop being afraid, failure isn’t as bad as you think. It’s not trying that is the real failure in life.
Here is an example. If you are a pessimist and are thinking about joining the VIP membership, but you are a little worried that it won’t help much, I understand how you feel. I’ll make you a deal. If you try it and you don’t like the results after 3 months, I’ll give you all your money back. I’m really not saying you should buy the VIP membership if you don’t want to, but I hope that it’s not your pessimistic side speaking to you. My point is, don’t let your fears or doubts get in the way of your success. You can apply this to many or even most areas of your life.
For other things you are considering, I encourage you to take more chances and risks. Learn from the optimists. Your life will be better for it. Look for a better job. Ask that guy or girl you like on a date. Try more things that could possibly help you. If you keep doing this, your life will be better for it; A LOT better. Even if you are kind of sceptical or a bit afraid of something, just remember that taking more chances is a great thing.
There is a very famous saying in English that says, “Life with no risk is no life at all“. Think about it.
Some questions for you:
Are you generally an optimist or a pessimist?
Did you learn anything about yourself from this blog?
After reading this post, are you planning on making any changes in your own life? What changes?
Thanks guys! I can’t wait to read your comments 
December 3rd, 2012 at 12:50 pm
thank you .
December 3rd, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Great, great post! I personally tend to be inclined toward “feet on the ground” attitude. I can’t say that this is due to a pessimistic attitude, quite the opposite. I’m always looking for new challenges and eager to learn and study new topic outside my daily core business. I’d say that I tend to have a rational approach with a grain of optimistic view about life. I also tend to trust people and after a while I realized that this aspect can get me easily burned; now I’m a little bit more skeptical and suspicious about any kind of relationship.
I always like double checking about everything old or new out there. Before jumping on the band wagon I have always to do my homework and proof to myself that what I’ve heard or read is true. If you only trust your “it makes sense feeling”, chances are that you have been fooled. I could provide a slew of examples especially about economic “common wisdom and myths” that are widely accepted (but are completely wrong). I don’t want to go out of topic so let’s to here for now. Again, great post guys!
December 3rd, 2012 at 3:07 pm
A really interesting article that has given me a lot of food for thought. What side do I usually take – optimistic or pessimistic? I have to admit that pessimistic approach way outweighs optimistic. I can’t help noticing that this prevents me from achieving and trying a lot of new things. I think everybody has found himself in such a situation when you want to do something new, say, ask out a girl for a date, or want to stop being a lazy butt and start going to the gym, you are enthusiastic about it, but when it’s high time to take the first step, this nototrious “generator of excuses” starts working. You are trying to justify your laziness, or fear, or lack of self-confidence putting everything down to the factors that are beyond your control. The reality is that this is YOU who determines this reality, not vice versa. This is more about psychology that anything else when it comes to this dichotomy “optimists-pessimists”. I want to improve my life, I think everybody wants to. So, why don’t we all start using this principle: “the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty, the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity”? It seems to me that we’d be better-off, if we started doing something we really want. Rome was not built in a day. Nothing goes in vain – if we fail – this is experience, if we succeed – well, this is just awesome! It’s better regret doing something, than regret not doing something.
I’ll be very glad to hear your comments, guys!))
December 3rd, 2012 at 7:32 pm
I am very pessimistic it is almost a second nature for me.
Unfortunately, I had a negative past. I was racially abused by my cousins and friends. I was bullied at school. I was mocked at my physical weakness. All of these real incidents had made my thinking very pessimistic.
I am a loner. I do no have any friends. I do not believe in relationships. I look at things always in a negative way. When I was in Dubai as a tourist. I was having a small chat with one of Japanese tourists inside the tallest building ever, Burj khalifa. He asked me. “what do you make out of Dubai city?” My reply was like: Sounds like a ghost town. However, I could reply positively and could say something like a nicer version of Las Vegas in just 20 years. Because of pessimistic personality I do not dare to try out new things in my life because of this I follow same old, same old lifestyle. My life has become quite stagnant. I have become more depressed now. People who are optimists and make things happen rather than wait for them to happen will be really successful in real life.
In my case, one failure after another had demolished my self-confidence even right at this moment I want to do something different in my life, my mind already gives up on it. Like I can not do it.
I am totally in agreement with regard to a point of optimists getting far ahead in their life. I also notice one more thing. FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE. The optimists are more brave, take more risks etc. Hopefully, I will mimic some of their positive traits in my life from now on and purge some old negative habits of mine.
December 4th, 2012 at 1:13 am
I’m an optimist, sometimes can be too optimistic I guess, especially when I’m looking for something new to do, not the small things like trying out a new restaurant but the things that would have a relatively bigger impact one’s personal life such as moving to a different city or country to live or making a career change. Perhaps the excitement about the new experience and the opportunity to start a new life has overwritten the fear about the uncertainty and risks. I think one’s ability of being optimistic or pessimistic is actually determined by his or her personality, in another word, the driving core motive inside that comes with everyone of us at birth (Dr. Taylor Hartman, author of the books called The Color Code and The People Code).
However, I never believe in something like “ignorance is bliss”. Happiness should come from wisdom but not ignorance. While being an optimist, I’m also a perfectionist and rationalist who’s always trying to find out the logic behind. Therefore, I always have to go through some internal struggles in maintaining a balanced state of mind, because thinking too much or too deep would make me stuck in just one or two aspects of an issue but lose the insight of a bigger picture, which is one of the key reasons that cause pessimism.
December 4th, 2012 at 1:59 am
Optimistic or Passimistic ..
endless questions in our life.!!
for me ,
act frist and think later type of person.
Optimist!! sounds better than Pessimist,right?
most of people are afraid to do new thing
because mostly they are afraid of failure
what if they laugh at me..@$!!
what if they criticize me..#$%#$
what if they talk bad behind me..@#$@#
they are genious to visualize
terrible possible result of what they try to do
that’s not the case for me!
i never label [so called failure] as FAILURE,
but as precious EXPERIENCE of my life
so do first and think later is my MOTTO of life
in my choice ,no failure at all but only Something To Learn
why don’t u try this kind of life-style ..
it’s more interesting and fun!!
life is simple and short there is no much time to think only!!
enjoy to do something
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
December 4th, 2012 at 8:07 am
Could it be so one used to be a pessimist some years ago and now tends to look at things more positively? Can it change during lifetime I wonder?
December 4th, 2012 at 8:37 am
could it be possible to change the way of looking the world???
yes of course!! we can!
think about how to change the meaning of
FEAR,WORRY,DOUBT,ANXIETY and other negative emotional stuffs
FEAR = I chanllenge to grow
WORRY = there has been always solution
DOUBT = I believe that should be OK
ANXIETY = Enjoy [MEDITATION]..calm,serene and peaceful you’ll become!
enjoy..playing words into positive way!!////////////////
December 4th, 2012 at 9:23 am
This post make me thing about something in my life, I’m a pessimist but I will change
December 4th, 2012 at 10:38 am
Optimistic and Emotion state tightly relate between each other. This is key part your’ success. I think that great idea move forward and will discover new knowledge, which will have brought us to other interesting diversity events in life experience. I was told that to change your life will bring a lot benefits. I follow this advice until now. I changed and would have changed constantly during my life. Improving self-education help me consistently develop my brutal mental strength. I recommend you, will have followed this advice.
December 4th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Thank you, I’ll try to apply your advice…because I’m pessimist and I wanna make changes in my life…
December 4th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Thanks for this post, I really enjoyed. I have to confess that I¨m very OPTIMISTIC and sometimes this is not good. I want to still being optimistic but now I´m taking time to evaluate things better. I´m the kind of guys who can convince and encourage people to do things, to improve and to achieve goals and I love to do this. However, sometimes I can´t see reallity and is funny because everybody use to tell me that I´ll fail or I´m crazy doing something but when the ball comes and hit me hard is when I awake and feel the pain. But you know, in the long term I evaluate what happens to me and I could laugh about all the situations for which I pass trough, be proud of being fearless and had enjoyed such experiences. For those who are pesimist is better to live in pain than to die whitout any goals reached…. that´s what I think!!!
December 4th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
Really good topic, I’m thinking about my aptitude in my live , I sure I’m not a pessimistic person, I feel more like a very realistic person, maybe I need to change that and move me more to the optimistic side, but just for me, I try to improve myself every day, but how about spirit , there are many people that love to make the same think every day, don’t like to know new think , what’s wrong about that.
December 4th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
I am kind in the middle and that´s a problem ,or maybe not. hmmmm. one clear example: the glass of water is have full or have empty ? both the pessimist and the optimist will be different opinions based on their attitudes at how they face circumstances in their life. i would prefer to be an optimist without discarding a rational assessment of the situation involved.
December 4th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Great! This blog is about me and from me! And in right time!
Thanks a lot!
I do not understand not all, but I fill, that is true!
I must translate this blog careful.
December 4th, 2012 at 8:45 pm
Hi guys,
Nice topic once again.
I am generally a pessimistic person and I think this can be traced back to the society where I am living. In my country it is difficult to make end meet these days. Inflation, unemployment and corruption deal a shattering blow to the body of society and I have no idea what the hell of governors are doing?!!! Nobody was born an optimist or a pessimist person, but the way of life and of course society do play an important role in this case. I know being an optimist or a pessimist also depends on the characteristic of each person but the role of society is undeniable. I think it is so stupid if you think everything is OK and is not a BIG deal. When I open up my problem with mums and dads what all they say is, “Don’t be worry things will change”. This absolutely drives me crazy. I my self do believe that for getting everything you want in your life you should just give the best shot. That’s all.
December 4th, 2012 at 9:41 pm
Hi guys, another great topic. Pretty much I’m more a pessimistic person than optimistic, however; I’m a really confident guy who tries new things and never says: “I can’t do this, that’s too hard for me or it’s impossible! I’m also a quite strict person, which means if I have to go to gym, or do other things, I just do it without excuses because it’s really important in my life. Usually I’m pessimistic about the economy, government or the situations in the world. It gets worst year by year, but on the other hand I always say: We gotta fight because nobody will give us anything free. We gotta take care of ourselves. My optimistic side of me is: I really want better future for me and for my family but I have to do something if I want to reach my dreams.
At the end I’d like to thank you for this blog. It was really my pleasure to read this. Take care and keep it up, guys !!!
Paul
December 5th, 2012 at 12:01 am
Reduce expense that you do all this time. Look forward and decide what you want. For my opinion, better live like happy, energy youth human being or will have thought about unbelievable future. That ultimately will bring you undesirable outcome. Your goal consists ultimately mostly from your future generation, because you must be healthy and afterward wealthy. Let me explain. Everyone has parents and some of all of us knew about: how we had felt when one of them fell ill. We must allocate time from family and business to pay a visit our parents. This is great idea, but for me not. I must be healthy to encourage future generation, my children and grandchildren. This is my main idea. This treasure, that will bring everyone benefits. Think about that. In other words, to be wealthy and healthy we work very heavy days and do not think about end, we get only illnesses. We are addicting smoking cigarettes, alcohol and so on, and do not think about consequences. When my son knew, that his parents felt well, he had been doing big deal. This is theme not ended. Please share your idea with me and do health to be wealthy. I beg your pardon for English because I have been studying for two years by myself and still making mistakes.
December 5th, 2012 at 1:22 am
being pessimist because of your surroundings,
then i want to recommend strongly
a book named [Search of Meaning] by Viktor Frankl
who was survived Geman Nazi Concentration camp,
whoes all family was killed by geman nazi..
the reason he could survive all terrible and horrible
situation is only because the way of looking at EXPERENCE
in differnt way , optimistic way,
learning something from terrible EXPERIENCE way!!
don’t blame your surroundings,
it’s all your problems not others.
it’s all about how to interpret the circumstances
in differnt way!!!!
have a good day all!!////////////////////////////////
December 5th, 2012 at 2:12 am
I am a Japanese female 32 years old. Osaka.
I really enjoyed your topic!
Have you ever heard of Creative visualization? By visualizing a certain event or a situation,we attract it into our life.All successful people use it consciously or unconsciously, attracting the success they want into their life, by visualizing their goals as already accomplished.
Thought is energy, especially a concentrated thought laden with emotional energy. Thoughts change the balance of energy around us, and bring changes to the environment in accordance with them.
So I agree with you that optimists are more likely to succeed than pessimists.
December 5th, 2012 at 2:14 am
I really love your blog by the way! Thank you very much always !
December 5th, 2012 at 2:44 am
oh..it’s great
to find somebody who have read same book which i love
[Creative Visualization] is great book,
also very helpful to improve English as well
because it has a lot of meaningful sentences,
i really love it
why we live on this beautiful Earth??
just to LOVE(not only narrow meaning of one person),
LEARN and BE HAPPY.
to be happy!!
,which is the important reason to be OPTIMIST!!!
all be optimistic!!
/////// here, sky overcast!!seems like snowing soon..
December 5th, 2012 at 7:24 am
Hey guys,nice topic again. Actually, all of yours topics are really good;)
I think I’m rather realistic person. Sometimes I’ do not do something because I know it’s doomed to failure and I’m aware that it’s really bad attitiude. It closes the door to various types of opportunities.
Thank u very much for this words. I promise that I will be trying to think positive. It will be my New Year’s provisions.
December 5th, 2012 at 7:31 am
I have been pessimist for a long time until 4 years ago I belive…(not a good thing being pessimist you know…)
I worked hard trying to change myself… And I really changed… and averything around me start to change. It is good to be optimistic… defenitly !
And the most interesting thing is that YOU CAN cange yourself ! And YOU really CAN cange the world aroud you…
December 5th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
A great post as always. Thanks a lot for sharing it with us.
I think am kind of a boring person because I fear taking risks. It happens to everyone with no doubt so China232 fans, drop the pessimist in you and go for it
I believe am pessimist most of the time and hence miss a lot of good things. I’ll personally take the advice, be more optimistic and see what happens.
December 5th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
I’m a mixed pessimist-optimist person, maybe, idk. I just can see failures in everything i do, even before i try. But i try them anyway, just because i desperately need n i can face my failures with thinking “It’s not something new, I face it very often and i wont be bothered at all if i get this kind of shit once again, i’m strong enough to survive in this shitty life”. So my reaction will be just laugh. I’m not like some ppl who do nothing when get failures. Life sucks, yes, but I’m still try to learning things, many things in life, even though i’m not sure if i can achieve what i really want in the end. Pathetic. Doing something, hoping miracles, hoping all of sudden my life will be well enough, hoping all of sudden i can achieve many things in life with so much fear inside that i can’t. Often it (my pessimism) brings me into nightmares. But my lifetime commitment is (after reading this article n many other resources before), i’ll try to be an optimist. Because i know actually, excessive fears bring us nothing. Just do our best n see the best results we can achieve. Life is too short to fear of things. I love a korean drama: “1 litre of tears” that said: “Suffer and suffer through, and there’s a rainbow colored happiness waiting on the other side. Do not rush it; do not be greedy. Don’t give up, because everybody takes a step at a time. It didn’t matter how insignificant…”
Thanks China232… Nice blog..:):)
December 5th, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Hey Yuyun , “1 litre of tears” is a Japanese television drama.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Litre_no_Namida_(TV_series)
December 6th, 2012 at 1:24 am
in Yuyun’s saying give me chance to add more..
///////////////////
“Suffer and suffer through, and [there’s a rainbow colored happiness waiting on the other side]”
////////////////////
too much expectations make people miserable
we’d better do not expect too much happiness rainbow over there later!!
just enjoy so called suffering as it is!!
that’s the HAPPNESS
vision, dream, purpose and ultimate goal ..etc..it’s ok!!
we surely must keep those things in our mind
to get power to drive forward there and
to do our best on just RIGHT NOW , what we are doing.
happiness is not tangible not visible and not achiveable!!
it coluld be created in our mind right now!!not later.
final result(we might call this way) is not ours
it’s in God’s hand!!
盡人事待天命
everybody be happy right now!!!
i’m really happy this moment of writing, thanks
/////////////////////////////////////////////
December 6th, 2012 at 3:27 am
I liked
December 6th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
This topic is really amazing.
I used to think a lot about this stuff, and I prefer to be optimistic. A positive way of thinking about things definitely makes your life happier and easier. Why do people have to worry about little things? It is much better to pay attention to all the wonders that our world provides. And these wonders are really numerous. I think that nature walks work best for me, but that’s only one example from a large set.
Such positive attitude could even help you to solve really important and serious problems more confidently. Just be ready to learn new things constantly and don’t overestimate your current abilities. Self-improvement is a real fun! Even when it’s hard, because challenge makes this process even funnier.
Thank you, Andy and Add, for your amazing podcasts and for a good blog. I really appreciate what you are doing and your work really helps me to improve my English. I used to read literature in English and listen to audiobooks, but this is the first time when I got into conversation.
December 7th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
@R: Yes it’s Japanese television drama….:) I forgot
@Sung: Nice post…:)
December 7th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
I would have to say I’m an Optimist and a Pessimist.
I always try to look at things in life with a positive attitude but on the other hand I tend to worry and give up easily sometimes.
My comment on this is while some people might think Pessimistic people or Optimistic people are better, that is simply not true. I think almost everyone has a little bit of both.
Good topic
December 7th, 2012 at 9:07 pm
Hi guys, interesting topic with a hidden meaning to say. I want to say here is that those who read this blog, and he’s optimistic. Everyone chooses their life, and if someone was pessimistic and now bought china232, he decided, he comprehended what is now optomist. I personally remain in my life and I was always optimistic. No happiness without risk, and you can not catch fish without wet in the river !!!
December 8th, 2012 at 12:48 am
Vodka Kitty ‘s talk of
[I think almost everyone has a little bit of both]
that’s absolutely right!!!
that good point drive me to write a little bit more
all things in this world have Both,
Black and White,
Bright and Dark,
Positive and Negative,
Angel and Devel and a lot of both opposite
narrow down into 陰陽[inyang] , natural,oriental philosophy..
those both should be balanced and harmonized
so accept bad things[which might be good thing as well] AS IT IS
with strong embracing ..that’s the well being of our life!!
thanks all!! ///////////////////////////////////////////
December 8th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
NO comments it’s super! keep writing keep doing it!
December 9th, 2012 at 5:40 am
I personally think that all my failures are not failures at all. It’s just my priceless experience. Sometimes bad things are responsible for the good changes in your life. So be calm and wise and you’ll see that life is wonderful.
December 11th, 2012 at 11:23 am
Hi everybody , sorry for my pure english.
I would like to share the following idea:
For example, if you ask that guy or girl you like on a date you
will get a two options to hear “Yes” or “No” from his or her .
And if you are afraid of doing something, not only ask on a date,
you will have only “No” option.
A lot thank you for this topic and looking forward to hearing from you guys.
July 22nd, 2014 at 7:45 pm
As for me I think I am something in the middle, I mean something between optimist and pessimist. I try to look on the bright side of every situation. I am aware that positive thinking is the best way to succeed. But at the same time I tend to think way too much which sometimes makes it hard to make quick decisions. All in all I tend to try new things even if it requires taking some risk. Just like you said we should not let our fears or doubts to get in the way of our success. That is what I am exactly thinking of every time I need to make some major decisons or even when trying new things.
It’s not the first time you mention about trying new things, last time I read about it (not in this blog) I decided to follow your advice.