A recent blogpost from Unawoken spoke about middle-aged people with optimism biases. At the time I didn’t think much of it because the person in question believed that if one believes in something, he/she could do anything. Obviously, I thought this person was way out there and let it go.
But it later occurred to me that an optimism bias is important. Having a personality like mine where I oscillate between cup-half-empty to cup-half-full (mostly the former), I am in favour of, even a forced, an optimism bias. An optimistic outlook on life is simply necessary to be able to cope with life, to get one out of bed, go about their business. Without it, everyday becomes a burden. Optimism bias helps in other ways as well. I’ve seen enough evidence where a propitious outlook on ones own abilities and advertising it unabashedly gets people ahead in their careers. An optimistic person is more inclined to reach out to people and have more friends and do things with them. Simply put, optimism sells.
Negative emotions or outlook, on the other hand, keeps a person from doing things, awkward in social situations, shunned by people, lonely, unhappy. They may be the most realistic people around and may see the world as it really is and may call a spade a spade. But, most people don’t want to hear them or hang around them.
The downside of optimism bias is that one can take it a little too far. It might make people set unrealistic goals. It might make one expect too much from themselves, their friends and relationships and when those expectations aren’t met, they might come crashing down.
It is a fine balance to keep an optimistic outlook that is rooted in reality but not bogged down by reality. Who said life was easy?
