Community Chat

[Greeneyedlady21]

Recent years of tough times in my life have made me ultimately more optimistic about myself. I have worked to have better self esteem and to be more assertive with people who have beaten me down. Or still try to. I was bent but not broken.

I am very pessimistic about other things, more than I have been in a long time.

[ChynnaBlue]

I'm an optimistic pragmatist. Some things will work out, some won't, and the odds of things working out the way I want wiil usually improve if I'm willing to work and take some risks.

[Yardlie]

I am definitely an optimist. My 92 year old mother lives with DH and I. She has always been a pessimist and also very critical of my optimism. When we are discussing something, I will hear a constant barrage of statements like: "You are not realistic about anything." "You are so naive." "The worst is yet to come." "Are you really going to wear that to your appointment? When I was your age, I wore stockings and a dress...." ...yada, yada, yada. She never sees the bright side of anything.

My mother sits in front of the tv all day and just cuts down everything everyone says, wears, or does. I try to get her interested in other things because she is fairly active yet and healthy. She doesn't want to do anything except watch the news...which is very negative most of the time. I think much of her pessimism has to do with the world changing so much since she was young. She wants everything to be like it was in the 40's and 50's...but she was a pessimist even back then. I just try to change the subject, but it gets old and wears on you.

DH often says that he doesn't know how I ever turned out so optimistic. My remark is that I never wanted to be like my mother. I know that that is such a sad thing to have to say. My father was such a sweet, kind, optimistic man. Opposites really do attract.

[Pqfan]

---

@Lila Belle wrote:

My optimism, which i've always held onto is flagging. But I'm not giving up.

You?

---

BIG HUGS ((( Lila Belle)))

[SahmIam]

  A Skeptic thinks the glass might be half full, a cynic is pretty sure the glass is only half full, and a pessimist knows that the glass, even if it is half full, contains poison anyway.

Using the above as an example, I am a realist.

[nana59]

Pessimist.....

[hckynut]

I have said it probably a thousand times on this Bulletin Board. During my many life threatening health issues, my best friend was Optimism. I have always looked at life and everything that happens in it or to it, with optimism, including my battles with diagnosed Clinical Depression and Anxiety/Panic Attacks.

That sounds like an oxmoronically statement, but it is not. One can be Clinically depressed, but still see a faint light at the end of the tunnel, with help from those trained in this Medical Profession. 

Without optimism, many make their lives more difficult, than I believe, is necessary.

hckynut(john)

[Trinity11]

I am a realist. I don't kid myself about anything and almost 100 percent of the time, it ends up working out exactly like I thought it would.

[chickenbutt]

I'm a realist.  I guess that tends toward what some, in extreme terms, might consider pessimistic.    

But, hey, at least I'm seldom disappointed.    Things either turn out how I expect or better.    The optimists I have known over the years tend to have unrealistic views and are often disappointed.