The Realistic Optimist

A friend commented on one of my posts regarding optimism.  She's known optimists who's hopes were not grounded in reality.  Optimism may make people happier, but what if the optimist is avoiding unpleasant truths?

When positive psychology books like Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment advocate that we cultivate optimism, they are not encouraging us to avoid the facts.  Rather, they are advocating we acknowledge negative truths, address these as needed, but spend more time dwelling on positive truths.

An 8 ounce glass with 4 ounces of water really IS half empty.  And it really IS half full.  Every moment, life is filled with more truths than you can possibly recognize all at once.  In the same situation, an optimist and a pessimist can be equally realistic, seeing things accurately, just as they are.  They both will see clearly, but they will look at different things.  The optimist will spend more time reflecting on good times past, more time savoring the joys of this moment, and more time anticipating good things to come.  The pessimist will dwell--accurately and realistically--on unfortunate truths.  The optimist will make a compelling case for being happy.  The pessimist will make a compelling case for anger or sadness.