115I never resent the work, it’s never overwhelming, and
my kitchen always looks decent.”
Pessimists like to set their problems aside. They
think so negatively about “doing the whole thing per-
fectly” that they end up doing nothing at all!
The optimist always does a little something. She or
he always takes an action and always feels like progress
is being made.
Because pessimists have a habit of thinking “it’s
hopeless” or “nothing can be done,” they quit thinking
too soon. An optimist may have the same initial nega-
tive feelings about a project, but he or she keeps think-
ing until smaller possibilities open up. This is why Alan
Loy McGinnis, in his inspiring book The Power of Opti-
mism, refers to optimists as “tough-minded.”
The pessimist, as far as the use of the human mind
goes, is a quitter.
Recent studies show, says McGinnis, that optimists
“excel in school, have better health, make more money,
establish long and happy marriages, stay connected to
their children and perhaps even live longer.”
To witness one of the most profound illustrations of
the practical effectiveness of optimism in American his-
tory, you’ll want to rent the movie, Apollo 13. Although
the job of bringing those astronauts back from the far
side of the moon looked daunting and overwhelming,
the job was accomplished one small task at a time. The
people at Mission Control in Houston who saved the as-
tronauts’ lives did so because even in the face of “impos-
sible” technological breakdowns, they kept on thinking.
They never gave up. They looked for partial solutions,
and they declared that they would string these partial
Keep thinking, keep thinking