Optimism vs Pessimism

They say perception is reality and I have to agree. The world is exactly as you view it...mostly. I'm not going to try to turn this into one of those motivational, self-help kind of rants, just offer my opinion.

I just got done having a discussion with a friend of mine who is kind of in a down mood. After talking for a while, she stated that I was entirely too optimistic, in which case, I pointed out that perhaps she was too pessimistic.

After telling her "Sometimes you just have to believe that the world is going to help you out," she pointed out that she could not believe she was hearing this from me because, as she puts it, I am "usually very negative." I can't argue with that, but I revealed to her that when I do get into these negative moods, the simple idea that the world isn't out to get me and that God will take care of me, I usually feel a lot better. She's an atheist so, needless to say, that didn't really help.

But religion, in this discussion, is mostly irrelevant. My point is, the world is what you make it. If you sit around constantly focusing on the negative aspects of your life, you're going to find more and more things to be negative about. And it has taken me a long time to learn that.

I've been trying to occupy my time with things that make me most happy as of late. Simple things really; reading, writing, music, family, and friends. That has allowed me to not stress over the bad things going on recently in my life. Notice, I'm not dismissing these things, merely not worrying about them. As a good friend told me recently, you can only overcome one obstacle at a time, and when an obstacle appears, I'll deal with it when the time is right and until then, I'll focus on the good things.