The Importance of Optimism: An Essay Example

In every society and in every country around the world, life is littered with obstacles. The most effective way to deal with such obstacles is to have a steady level of optimism and positive thinking. A pessimistic person will have more troubles in life, caused by their destructive cycle of negative thought. With a pessimistic attitude, even the smallest of tasks can seem unachievable and unbearable. I manage to maintain an optimistic attitude in most circumstances and I believe this makes both the big and the small areas of my life more fruitful. My least favourite subject in school is Social Studies, but I manage to achieve good grades by maintaining a clear head and pushing myself to try hard. From my involvement in this class and of what I have accomplished within it, the source of my optimism has become my experience of Social Studies class.
An example of when my optimism has come into effect relates to an incident last week when my computer stopped working. I had no idea why it wouldn’t switch on as it had never done this before. My first instinct was to panic – I needed my computer for my schoolwork and I needed it that evening to get work done for the following day. However, I reminded myself that it would be ok, that I would be able to work through the problem and fix it somehow. I was able to apply this optimism as I have done in Social Studies class. When given an assignment in this subject, I often don’t know immediately how I am going to tackle it. Moreover, I don’t enjoy the subject and, as a result, do not look forward to working on the task. However, with a bit of thought, I manage to address a topic that appeals to me personally and then I tend to achieve a good grade for the assignment. Therefore, when it came to my computer problem, I was able to apply the same principle. I took a bit of time to speak to people who may have had the same issue with their computer, then did some online research from a friend’s computer and, eventually, managed to work out the problem and get it working again. Without the optimism I have learned from Social Studies, I may have panicked about my computer not starting and not got my work done for school, rather than sensibly fixing it.
My experience of achieving good grades in Social Studies has led me to maintain an optimistic attitudes in all areas of life. Whenever I come up against an obstacle, large or trivial, I am able to apply the same principles that I have applied to my work within my least favourite subject and remind myself that I can achieve anything with some determination and enthusiasm. Optimistic people generally lead more fulfilled lives. They believe in themselves and this encourages them to be ambitious and to try things they haven’t previously tried. With a positive mental attitude, almost anything can be achieved by anyone whether that it in school, careers, home lives or in any other domain. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that a positive attitude tends to make a person happier and confident in general. Optimism is the key to a happy, healthy and successful life.