Pessimism vs. optimism

There are quite a few differences between optimists and pessimists, just like there are differences between those who have money and those who are without. While the first comparison dictates the quality of life the second has little or no bearing on an individual as an individual.

People who are rich, those who essentially do not have problems, feel the need to create problems or exaggerate ones that really do not matter. Their problems are less concrete, more emotional, and in the end, more devastating. These are the pessimists, those who cannot see the value that life has to offer them because they are so caught up in emotional and imaginary trials. This is not to belittle them in any way, for problems created in the mind have no less far reaching consequences, rather that their pessimism has created a futile outlook on something that began as positive and satisfactory.

Those who are poor, on the other hand, feel a need to overlook the problems that they cannot change and focus on something bright and beautiful. This may be more a survival instinct, for a person that cannot do this will ultimately not survive.

Optimists have a higher quality of life for they are able to enjoy more of it. Hope for the future overrules depression over the past, a past that cannot be changed no matter how hard a person might wish it gone. A pessimist dwells on the things that have gone wrong, transferring this dark attitude of the past to the future, thereby darkening a white and pristine page before they’ve even tried to sign their mark to it. An optimist, on the other hand, takes a mediocre page, one only pale and light, and shines it till it sparkles, ignoring the ink stains that may stain its blank and pristine page. 

While pessimists and optimists are found in all stations in life, the results are not much different no matter where they are. They may lead different lives, but outlooks are the only thing that a person has control over in the end. If a person has a dark and dreary outlook, they will darken even the brightest day. What they believe is what will happen, and the same goes for optimists. If they believe life will be good, it is, and out of the darkest night will shine the moon.