Is Positive Thinking the Same as Optimism?

Is positive thinking the same as optimism? No, not in my book! I have to admit that I am writing this blog because of someone else’s. I thought I had bookmarked it because I want to give a link to it, but I can’t find the darned thing!

Positvie Thinking

The blogger wrote about the new book out by Barbara Ehrenreich called Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Now I have to say that I have not read the book. I had not even heard of it until last night. Apparently Ms. Ehrenreich Thinks that positive thinking has ruined this country and is the cause of much of the bad in this world. From reading the reviews, she seems to confuse optimism with positive thinking.

Again, I have not read the book, but if this is what she really thinks, I believe it to be a bit narrow. The writer of the lost blog wrote about what she saw as the difference between positive thinking and optimism and I thought it was very good.

Basically, she said that optimism is feeling happy about everything all the time. Positive thinking is not so cheery about crappy circumstances, but understands that things can work out and refuses to be controlled by the situation.

The writer used the example of getting out of bed in the morning. Not many people are real happy, or optimistic, about that. Many people grumble and groan and let it start the slow slide to a ruinous day. The optimist, wakes with a smile and leaps out of bed with a song on their lips. Irritating if you happen to live with them! The positive thinker is somewhere in between. They don’t really want to get out of bed, but believe that the day holds promise. They get up thinking about what opportunities there might be and how they might turn it to good.

I agree with this one hundred percent! A positive thinker may not be unrealistically happy about their flat tire, but will not let the situation get them down or ruin their day. They simply think that there may have been a good reason for it, there might be something good come of it, or at the least, it broke up the day.

Positive thinking, in and of itself, has not ruined anything! Greed, fueled by thinking in a positive light as to how you might benefit from others misfortune has. The quest for power, using positive thinking as to ways to gain control over others has. Positive thinking used to better one’s life and the lives of those around them is still a pretty good way to go!

Optimism is, for most of us, unrealistic. Things happen that we are not happy about. Positive thinking refuses to see the bad in everything and looks to make things better. I choose to think positively!

Here’s to You!

P.S. If you are the person who wrote the blog I am mentioning, please leave a comment and a link so I can give you the credit. It was a great post!