Life is all about finding a balance that works for you.
- Pushing yourself, but making sure you don’t drop off the edge.
- Loving someone, but making sure you don’t suffocate them.
- Saving some for later, but making sure to live a little as well.
Seeking balance is like playing with a lever that operates between short term desire on the one side, and long term sustainability on the other side.
Time teaches us to get the levers in the right position for optimal living. From a young age, we play with these levers and learn by trial and error.
It’s no different with optimism and pessimism. You’ll need both to be successful.
Optimism brings hope, enthusiasm and inspiration. However, too much optimism can blind us from risks and encourages reckless opportunism.
Pessimism helps us prepare for when things don’t go as we hoped for. It helps us with scheduling and budgeting. However, too much pessimism can bog us down and paralyzes us.
Be mindful how and when to switch the lever between the two opposites.
Use optimism to live a happy day-to-day life: actively look for beauty and the things you’re grateful for. Use optimism to inspire yourself and others around you. Use optimism to radiate positive energy so you can surround yourself with other people who radiate positive energy.
Use a healthy dose of pessimism to prepare yourself for tougher times. If you don’t, the optimist in you might die a slow death when these tougher times arrive.
Being a little bit of a pessimist at the right time, enables you to live life as an optimist in the long run.
