Friday 17 April 2015

Optimism is key to a happy life


Let me first share a story I read a few days ago.

There were two identical twins. One was a hope-filled optimist John and the other twin was a sad and hopeless pessimist called Matthew. The worried parents of the boys brought them to the local psychologist.

He suggested to the parents a plan to balance the twin's personalities,"On their next birthday, put them in separate rooms to open their gifts. Give Matthew the best toys you can afford, and give John a box of manure." The parents followed the instructions and carefully observed the results.

When they peeked in on Matthew, they heard him complaining,"I don't like the colour of this computer...., I'll bet this calculator will break...., I don't like this game.... I know someone who's got a bigger car than this...."

Tiptoeing across the corridor, the parents peeked in and saw John, their little optimist gleefully throwing the manure up in the air. He was giggling. "You can't fool me! Where there's this much manure, there's got to be a pony."

This is the difference in a pessimist and optimist. A pessimistic person will find faults with the best of the things and complain about every situation, while an optimistic person will see ray of hope and goodness even in the worst of scenarios. Even if one feels that he is a born pessimist, he can change his attitude. This attitude of optimism or pessimism is due to our conditioning from the childhood till now. Once we become aware of our nature and put effort consciously to change, we can surely become more optimistic.



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