The other day in class, sir asked us to explain certain concepts of positive psychology in any way we wanted, for a few minutes. The one I got was optimism. I'd never actually thought about the concept seriously before - what it really means, why it is needed in today's world, and also, whether I am an optimist or a pessimist. So I came back home and decided to learn a little more about it.
I'm a huge fan of nice quotes, so the first thing I did was to search for quotes about optimism. And here's the thing - I came across so many contradictory ones, that by the end of it, I was so much more confused than when I started. Here are two which particularly had a role to play in my utter lack of clarity.
The basis of optimism is sheer terror. - Oscar Wilde
Optimism is the foundation of courage. - Nicholas M. Butler
I thought and thought about how these two could possibly go hand in hand to explain the same concept. So I tried to represent it diagrammatically, and this is what I came up with:
And when put like that, it kind of made sense.
This might not be what either Butler nor Wilde meant to say when they said what they did, but it helped me understand that optimism doesn't mean that there's no fear. And it doesn't mean that there's no obstacle. It just means that you get over that fear and go for what you want with the mindset that there is something good that is coming out of it.
I'm a huge fan of nice quotes, so the first thing I did was to search for quotes about optimism. And here's the thing - I came across so many contradictory ones, that by the end of it, I was so much more confused than when I started. Here are two which particularly had a role to play in my utter lack of clarity.
The basis of optimism is sheer terror. - Oscar Wilde
Optimism is the foundation of courage. - Nicholas M. Butler
I thought and thought about how these two could possibly go hand in hand to explain the same concept. So I tried to represent it diagrammatically, and this is what I came up with:
This might not be what either Butler nor Wilde meant to say when they said what they did, but it helped me understand that optimism doesn't mean that there's no fear. And it doesn't mean that there's no obstacle. It just means that you get over that fear and go for what you want with the mindset that there is something good that is coming out of it.
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