What does it mean to be optimistic about life?

Question

I recently got in an argument with some one about this.

If instead of looking at life as a bad thing and everything is dark and bad, if you look at it from a brighter veiw as if everything is going to be okay and life is good anyways. Is that being optimistic?

Answer 1

Some people confuse what you are describing with Optimism. Optimism does not require that you believe everything is good or that everything will be OK. You merely look at things from a more positive perspective...

Optimism is merely looking on the positive. ie. Someone is walking down the street, and trips on their untied shoelaces. The pessimist sees the negative, and curses his luck that he tripped. The optimist sees the positive, and is perhaps glad that it happened while no one else was looking, or it could have been embarrassing...

They don't have to be happy that they tripped and fell, their perspective on what happened merely reflects on the more positive aspect of what happened over the negative...

Answer 2

Well, if you look at things and think everything is giong to be okay, it doesn't mean that they are a optimistic. They could be a realist!

Answer 3

Yes, that's being optimistic. Being optimistic is not worrying about the bad things, but always having your head up and looking to the sky.

"The glass is not half empty, it's half full"

Answer 4

Absolutely. Also, whenever something bad does happen, you are able to look at the positive side of it. For example, if you wreck your car, you can believe that you should be happy that you weren't hurt.

Answer 5

Being optimistic about life is believing that things work out for the best. as one person put it the glass is half full.  And if things do not work out like you thought they would then maybe that was not for the best.  I believe that you can learn something from everything that happens no matter how bad it may seem now.