Optimism and Pessimism

[Tempist]

Like anything, the healthier position is always a shade of grey somewhere in between. 'Hope for the best, prepare for the worst' is my preferred attitude.

Pessimism in action can strangely be very liberating - my fiance is always a little perplexed with my attitude to impending problems; I always stop, go "so, what is the absolute worst that can happen here?", come to terms with how I would handle that, then go on with my day, safe in the knowledge that if the worst happens, I am prepared, and since it is very likely the worst wont actually happen, any 'lesser' consequences are perfectly acceptable to me. As long as you don't let yourself wallow in pessimism, a pro-active pessimist can have a pretty stress-free life!

Your philosophy reminds me of a quote I heard before. "When you always expect the worst, than all surprises are good ones."

[Glorthindel]

Your philosophy reminds me of a quote I heard before. "When you always expect the worst, than all surprises are good ones."

It has definitely served me well this year! Despite a couple of big setbacks, I have managed to keep forging forward, to make the best of the mess (I feel that's the secret to being a good pessimist; don't let your expectations get you down, use them to galvanise yourself into action and position yourself to mitigate the expected damage).

[Wizard_Lizard]

It has definitely served me well this year! Despite a couple of big setbacks, I have managed to keep forging forward, to make the best of the mess (I feel that's the secret to being a good pessimist; don't let your expectations get you down, use them to galvanise yourself into action and position yourself to mitigate the expected damage).

But I would argue that that isn’t.. really pessimism, just being realistic. Pessimism would be expecting the bad things to happen all the time and only preparing for those? I might be wrong though.
To be fair 2020 has somehow made me more optimistic and I have no clue why.