Optimist or Pessimist?

Optimist or Pessimist?

I love the quote form James Borg’s book Mind Power that goes ;

“”whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist may not affect the outcome. It’s just that the optimist has a better time in life”.

So what are you choosing to be and did you think you were born that way? Well no actually, that’s what you are choosing for yourself, because that’s the way you are choosing to think. Unless, of course, you are remotely controlled by some unknown life force? No I thought not. 

So obviously if you are an optimist then well done you and long may it continue. However if not, and you are a glass half empty kind of person, does it make you stop and wonder how you pulled the short straw…oops there it goes again!

I give full credit to James Borg for what follows and I recommend you read his book in full, it’s a potential life changer.

What I want to recount to you now is the key to the magic box where you can retrieve your subscription papers that declare lifelong membership to the Pessimists Club. Actually it’s not so much a key as a question really and it might just change the way you see yourself and the way you justify your thoughts and your feelings to yourself.

The key question is this:

Do you control your mind? Or do you let your mind control you?

We are all the product of what we think, from second to second, minute to minute the incessant commentary that we create as we talk to ourselves in our heads will lead us to the actions and then create the feelings that we experience. Its worth repeating that….

Your thoughts come first and then feelings follow

It is simply not possible to have a feeling without the precursor of a thought. So when we tell ourselves “I can’t help the way that I feel, it’s just the way I am and there’s nothing I can do about it”, what we are actually doing is choosing to keep ourselves boxed into that negative mindset because they are the thoughts that we are choosing for ourselves. Some even argue for their weaknesses and list reasons why they can’t improve their life, such as “it’s my upbringing” “it’s my genes”, “it’s bad luck”.

However these things, no matter how strong, can only ever be influences upon us, they do not determine us. We always have the ability to think differently and thereby improve ourselves and our responses to all that we encounter and experience. We cannot control what happens to us or how other people treat us but we always have the freedom to choose our mental and emotional response, our outlook and attitude.

So what are you choosing? Do you think of yourself as a pessimist?

Don’t forget “”whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist, may not affect the outcome. It’s just that the optimist has a better time in life”.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Life Coach Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.

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