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Are you a Pessimist or an Optimist?

Are you Optimistic or Pessimistic?

  • Optimistic

    Votes: 7 25.9%

  • Pessimistic

    Votes: 6 22.2%

  • Bit of both

    Votes: 8 29.6%

  • Other

    Votes: 6 22.2%
  • Total voters
    27
Mr Allen

Mr Allen

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
Above.

Me? I'm a Pessimist, so much so that I kind of have a "sixth sense" of knowing when something's gonna go wrong, like on my course yesterday they persuaded me to apply online to Morrison's Supermarket, I know it would be a waste of time and I'd be rejected due to disability, but I did it anyway. About 20 minutes ago I got an email saying "We're sorry but your skills and experience don't match what we're looking for, we are not taking your application further" BOOM! I knew from the off that would happen and I was proved right!

I can't help that the only customer facing retail work I've ever done has been in Charity shops, nobody will employ a disabled 42 year old in a "proper" shop.

Anyway to get back to the point before I go on a long swear word filled rant (I'll do that on my Blog shortly), are any of you guys as Pessimistic as I am or are you more positive/optimistic?
 
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Neither. I'm just a realist.

Acknowledging that neither hope or despair serve me as well as understanding something for what it is rather than what it isn't- or might be.
 
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Bit of both, really. it depends. I can be quite cynical at times. People often tell me that I have negative thinking, when I'm actually just being realistic.
 
I guess I must be a optimist. Whenever I buy a lottery ticket, I start thinking what we will do with all that money.
 
clg114 said:
I guess I must be a optimist. Whenever I buy a lottery ticket, I start thinking what we will do with all that money.
Click to expand...

Me too, trouble is I've been buying Lottery tickets from Tesco for years and not won anything.

I bought a "Hot Pick" ticket last night for the £61 Million draw on Euro Millions, called in today to check the ticket and it wasn't a winner! :(

I wouldn't mind but at the moment I'm spending about £6 a week on Lottery tickets, that's 10% of my income nearly, with nothing to show for it, well OK about 3 weeks ago I won a tenner, but I bought a ticket elsewhere for that.
 
Optimistically pessimistic.
Or deeply pessimistic depends on my mood.

Optimistic? What does that mean, if we lived in a society with no backup whatsoever about our history I would understand optimism, but in 2018 come on people.

I wanted to buy a ticket once but I felt uncomfortable around so many strangers *definitly not autistic* KEK.
 
I'm clearly an optimist because I always look for the good in something. I'm also a serious realist. No matter where my imagination and fantasies can take me, I always keep one foot squarely on the ground. I'm not sure if that is a learned skill.
 
Like Judge I'm also a realist. My therapist seems to think I'm a pessimist but things just go wrong for me too often.
 
I'd have to say I am neither of the selected options, and would choose "other", I see myself as a "Realist", and I approach situations as they are, and Strategize and plan according to my needs and what would be most beneficial to myself.
 
I think both healthy doses of optimism and pessimism are needed. Optimism so that people see the point in improving themselves and society as to how life could be even happier and pessimism as a sign that something has to change. If it weren't for optimism, the civil rights movement woudn't have continued under such negative scrutiny. On the other hand, if it wasn't for some pessimism about how POC were treated back then, nobody would really see a need for a movement to exist.
 
I admit to being a pessimist,anxiety doesn’t help and also fear of being put in a position of vulnerability again doesn’t help with having a positive outlook.
 
I would say I m an optimist in the sense that realistically I believe having a positive attitude and looking for an upside often results in finding positive ways forward. There are always a number of options in any situation, and within limits, choices.

It's probably not pessimistic to predict failure if one knows from experience that an approach doesn't work, that seems simply realistic. Sometimes others are less realistic and encourage us to do stuff that we kind of know won't work. But I m also quite keen to look for alternative possibilities in any situation and try something different that may be a way forward.
 
Not much for buying into either perspective. The world will simply be the world and it doesn't care whatever spin I'd like to put on it. You could say I'm often cynical but I understand it as sober minded and careful observation.

Most of the issues that people get emotionally invested in, I tend to think of in ways that disregard people's feelings entirely. On almost any given subject that people tend to be pretty opinionated about, while I'm admittedly more than a little opinionated myself, I prefer flip the subject on its head and am unresolved about a great many things.

It's strangely liberating to think that I don't matter so much and it's more than possible that neither I nor anyone else has a decent idea of what's going on. If that's true then I'll think whatever I think. That being the case, you could say I'm a mixture of a realist and an I-don't-know-ist.
 
Optimist when it comes to larger events, direction of my life, etc. I have a lot of faith that God has a plan for each of us and that things will work out for our best benefit.

When it comes to people, I'm afraid I might be a trained pessimist. Part of my job is reviewing games and security systems in slot machines to make sure there's no way that anyone can abuse the system. That and an enthusiastic study of game theory has permanently tainted my view of the world. Everywhere I look, no matter what the system is, someone is trying to game the system. Everyone is trying to maximize their reward, both consciously and subconsciously. Even the good, loving, altruistic people do it - it's just that their reward is the good feeling that comes from helping others. I tend to look at people and try to figure out what their "reward" is. Once I can figure that out, I know what I can expect from that person. It sounds terrible, but it's a very effective view of the world for me. I consider it to be pragmatic, not pessimistic, since it does well in predicting what "bad" and "good" people both do ("bad" and "good" being defined by my own personal view of the world and my own personal reward system).
 
I voted both, but having read what you said, I had to change my vote, because in fact, I find that as soon as I feel confident about a situation, it always goes wrong for me and so, it seems more conjusive to actually think negative.

My husband and I have been invited to a bbq later today and I am scared out of my wits!
 
It fluctuates severely depending on my mood. If I'm in one of my depressive spells, I can be very negative and pessimistic. On the occasions where my head is clear, I can be pretty hopeful and optimistic and actually get things done. The trick is to try to not make any decisions or actions while depressed that can have lasting consequences.... or it might cause more grief in the future.

S
 
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