bythemethod.com blog

There is a great temptation to always think that the worst is going to happen to you. You know the kind of thing – you have to see the doctor, you have to see the boss, your wife tells you she wants to have a talk about something, etc. It’s easy to think that something is wrong and you are about to have your world turned upside down.

Then you discover that in fact your test results were fine, the boss wanted to thank you for doing a good job, your wife wanted to talk about holiday dates, etc.

Pessimists will tell you that it is best to anticipate the worst because then you are ready for it and anything above the worse is a bonus. However thinking this way leads to an increase in stress (high blood pressure – enlarged heart – sleepless nights – and so on). All this stress makes life miserable. The truth is that it is better not to anticipate the worst but the best.

The optimist discovers that they may not be right more of the time (although there is some evidence that suggests they are) but that when they get bad news they think about how they can cope rather than falling apart (a common misconception about optimists – that they go to peaces if they hear bad news).

So teach your self to aniticipate the best and not the worst.