The Making of An Optimist

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty “ ---Winston Churchill

I am an optimist. But I certainly wasn't born that way. It took a lot of hard work and consistent action to create this eternally optimistic outlook that I cherish today.

For much of my formative life, I actually believed I was put in this world to bring harmony and balance. However, not in the way, you might be thinking. There is a natural cause and effect, yin and yang, positive and negative, energy and laws of science in our universe. You see, I believed my role was to endure hardship (or negative energy) to offset someone else's good fortunes. So, my life at one time felt pretty shitty and difficult with this worldview, and the universe ensured I got exactly what I believed, many times over.

One day, feeling sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, I decided to change that. I turned my mindset and thinking around and decided to start viewing the world differently. If you can have it, so can I. I'd tell myself when looking at the fortunate. Besides the ongoing work of acknowledging and recognizing every small, and I do mean small, achievement or "reward" I also had to chase every single negative thought from my mind that crept up. There was a lot! But instead, I learned how to reframe everything, look at it from a different angle. And I did this again and again and again until the negativity slowed down, and there were long times between them.

The icing on the cake though is that secret recipe that just pushed me over that edge from pessimist to optimist - crafting an attitude of gratitude mindset. This is the one thing, consistently applied, that no eternal pessimist can withstand!

That's why living the G-Code and filling out the app every day is helpful for this. In the morning, I list the 5 things I am grateful for. Although it remains largely unchanged, there are always a couple of items or people here and there, that get brought up to the forefront for a day. But it just sets up my mindset for the rest of the day, to look for more areas to be grateful, to recognize the smaller accomplishments and to see the good in people and the world.

So, start today and begin your day with a gratitude list. Being optimistic is a state you can choose and I know, it makes me a lot happier.