#optimism

When our hopes for performance are not completely met, realistic optimism involves accepting what cannot now be changed, rather than condemning or second-guessing ourselves. Focusing on the successful aspects of performance (even when the success is modest) promotes positive affect, reduces self-doubt, and helps to maintain motivation (e.g., McFarland & Ross, 1982).... Nevertheless, realistic optimism does not include or imply expectations that things will improve on their own. Wishful thinking of this sort typically has no reliable supporting evidence. Instead, the opportunity-seeking component of realistic optimism motivates efforts to improve future performances on the basis of what has been learned from past performances. ↗

— Sandra L. Schneider

#expectations #improvement #learning #optimism #performance

There's probably a little greater case for pessimism than optimism. But I do not rule out optimism. ↗

— Jim Leach

#greater #i #i do #little #optimism

I do believe that most men live lives of quiet desperation. For despair, optimism is the only practical solution. Hope is practical. Because eliminate that and it's pretty scary. Hope at least gives you the option of living. ↗

— Harry Nilsson

#believe #despair #desperation #eliminate #gives

When life gives you lemons, you don't make lemonade. You use the seeds to plant a whole orchard - an entire franchise! Or you could just stay on the Destiny Bus and drink lemonade someone else has made, from a can. ↗

— Anthon St. Maarten

#courage #destiny #fate #happiness #inner-strength

Regardless of how black the page, he had always managed to turn it and move on to a new chapter in his life. ↗

— Robert Masello

#hope #inspirational-quotes #life #optimism #courage

Just when normal life felt almost possible - when the world held some kind of order, meaning, even loveliness (the prismatic spray of light through an icicle; the stillness of a sunrise), some small thing would go awry and veil of optimism was torn away, the barren world revealed. They learned, somehow, to wait those times out. There was no cure, no answer, no reparation. (161) ↗

— David Wroblewski

#grief #optimism #death

It takes no more time to see the good side of life than to see the bad. ↗

— Jimmy Buffett

#cheerfulness #life #optimism #life

No matter our size or shape, everyone deserves a safe place in this world." ~ from BIG SMALL DOG, a children's story about overcoming bullying and adversity, and discovering unity and friendship. ↗

— Suzanne V. Marshall

#book #children-s-book #dog-story #empowerment #inspirational

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN: … But may I ask, at heart, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Those seem to be the only two fashionable religions left to us nowadays. MRS CHEVELEY: Oh, I'm neither. Optimism begins in a broad grin, and Pessimism ends with blue spectacles. Besides, they are both of them merely poses. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN: You prefer to be natural? MRS CHEVELEY: Sometimes. But it is such a very difficult pose to keep up. (Act I., lines 132-140) ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#pessimism #poses #nature

Ana never saw the rotten apples littering the ground as she continually reached for the rare golden apple on the tree. Ana had stepped in a lot of rotten apples in her lifetime. She should have learned by now. ↗

— Travis Luedke

#hard-lessons #hopeless-romantic #optimism #romantic