Pessimist or Optimist?

I am a pessimist... :/

 

This.

You should read "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking" by Oliver Burkeman I think it's really going to help you embrace your negativity and become a happier person.

 

I'm like somewhere in the middle. I would like to always be optimistic about things but just going though life I personal feel like its good to be able to see things realistically. For me It's more of a defense mechanism, like knowing just because I welled something to happen does not mean it will turn out that way and thinking like that helps to protect my feelings.

 

I'm usually a pessimist, occasionally optimistic. My support of pessimism: you don't get disappointed as much. Constantly optimistic people frustrate me to no end. Every time I try to start thinking positively something absolutely crap happens and I conclude it isn't worth the effort.

 

Really? I'm pessimistic about optimism. I'm an optimist by nature, and most of the time it's great and I love having a positive outlook and so on, but sometimes finding the silver lining in everything is really awkward and/or annoying, e.g. when your grandmother has lung cancer or when you just want to spend a little while moaning.

Also, this may be the closest poll I've yet seen on EC.

 

I am a pessimist through and through. I analyse situations through the worst possible circumstances, and more often than not I find that situations are bad, and realistically end results are bad, or good. Never great. And even if things are great, I always just assume that luck runs out blah blah blah and things will be bad again.I wouldn't call myself a realist though, just a whiny bitch

 

Pessimism: Either you're right or you're pleasantly surprised

 

The glass isn't just half full or half empty, it's both? I am slightly optimistic but I try not to be either.

But I am very pessimistic when it comes to the environment and humans. We're shit and we're ruining the environment and I think severe problems will rise already in our lifetime.

 

This is me as well. There are days that it's really hard to be optimistic.

 

I like to think of myself as realistic rather than pessimistic, so I'm going with optimistic in fact haha!!!

This joke comes to mind :
"Who is a pessimist?
An optimist with experience."

I like to predict things will turn out a certain way. That way may just end up being negative/sad/depressing/anti-climactic/etc. rather than the opposite, but I only foresee it because it is more likely than the alternative. I do not expect the negative per say, but it does seem to happen a lot more in my life. In terms of "outlook" I think positive most of the time. Its confusing to explain lol. When its something important, I like to think lowly in the chance of a pleasant surprise when the odds are very low, but other than that i hope for the best.

In cases of extreme ambiguity, I am always optimistic There are times where no one has any hope and it is my job to be super hopeful and looking forward to good things^_^

So im a realistic optimist? I hope for the best, but realize that sometimes (maybe even more) it won't happen. I don't let it get to me though.


*EDIT* I balanced the scale 24/24 as of me! woot woot!

 

I'm super optimistic! and sometimes my optimism is not realistic.

It effects on my life in a very good way. most of the time I have hope about things and it makes me feel like everything will be fine.

 

I like to think of full glasses as being empty of air. I'm also quite certain the universe will end.

Once upon a time, I was eight years old. I'd gotten rather upset in class, so afterwards, the teacher decided to try and teach me a new way to look at life. Perhaps he thought I would have an epiphany and look at the world in a new light forever after. Bloody optimist. He took out a piece of paper, and told me to draw a glass. I asked what kind, but he refused to tell me, so I drew one of those glass mugs, because I could. He took the pencil and drew a line across where he decided the middle should be, but he was pretty crap at it, and the line ended up about a third of the way up from the bottom.

He said: "George (stupid name I was using then), this is a glass of water. You can say it is either half full or half empty."

I stared. Way to state the fucking obvious. He'd just told me two things that meant the exact same fucking thing like it was some massive revelation.

"Its actually two thirds empty"
"Don't worry about that. Thats just my bad drawing."

I took the pencil and drew a better line.

"There. Now do you see?"
"They mean the same thing."
"But they're different attitudes to life."

At this point, I made a frustrated face and he gave up. I left.

Thats a true story, and a surprisingly vivid memory. My attitude towards glasses is the same as it was then: half empty and half full mean the same thing. If someone is disappointed about the amount of liquid in a glass, they will use language that suggests they are disappointed. Thats all. I remain a faithful pessimist, because past experience has shown me that most things fucking suck. Logically speaking, I can expect most things I encounter to fucking suck as well. I maintain that this is the realistic attitude to take, hence why I could also be considered a realist.

 

I hate water.

 

optimistic no matter how bad things get it will improve .

 

I agree, one day humanity will end, and stop fucking up the universe.

 

My outlook on life: Why are we analyzing a glass of water so closely?