The Habit of Optimism

Optimist or pessimist? I am an optimist. How could I not be? My parents, all of the adults in our family and extended family were Holocaust survivors. People who had lived through the unimaginable, who had lost everything, and often everyone. They came to a place where they did not speak the language, started all over again, and built successful new lives. That is optimistic, and they were my role models.
Optimism is an explanatory style that is a habit of thinking. Optimists are more successful in all aspects of life, including work and relationships. Some studies indicate that optimists live longer too. Like all habits, optimism can be learned, so why not choose to be optimistic?

In his book "Learning Optimism", Dr. Martin Seligman states that optimists and pessimists have different ways of explaining events. The optimistic explanatory style leads to feeling empowered to take action and make changes. The pessimistic style leads to feeling passive and behaving in a helpless manner. The three factors that characterize this are permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization. Here's what they look like:
-Optimists believe that adverse events are temporary(permanence),isolated(pervasiveness),
and due to external causes(personalization)
-Pessimists believe that adverse events are permanent(permanence),
diffuse(pervasiveness), and they cause them(personalization)

The way to build your habit of optimism is through the ABC method. A is for Adversity, B is for Beliefs, and C is for Consequences. Pay attention to the beliefs you have when you face adversity. You can look at the above chart to determine if they are optimistic or pessimistic and thereby determine the consequences.

A great example of this is someone who has been successfully dieting and then messes up one night while out with friends. A pessimist thinks that they are awful and believes that they will never be successful at losing weight. They go home and eat a cheesecake. The optimist forgives themselves for the slip, congratulates themselves for the good work they have done so far on the road to better health, and gets right back on their healthy eating regime. Adversity leads to beliefs leads to consequences.

Which set of consequences do you choose?