117those scenarios are lost causes, they take no action.
That’s why pessimism always leads to passivity.
But even lying on his couch, bloated with junk food
and foggy from too much television, the pessimist knows
somewhere in his heart that his “what’s the use?” atti-
tude is not effective. He is living a life that is reflected
in what Nietzsche once said: “Everything in the world
displeased me; but what displeased me most was my
displeasure with everything.”
Optimists have chosen to make a different use of
the human imagination. They agree with Colin Wilson’s
point of view that “imagination should be used, not to
escape from reality, but to create it.”
54. Put on a good debate
Negative thinking is something we all do. The dif-
ference between the person who is primarily optimis-
tic and the person who is primarily pessimistic is that
the optimist learns to become a good debater. Once
you become thoroughly aware of the effectiveness of op-
timism in your life, you can learn to debate your pessi-
mistic thoughts.
The most thorough and useful study I’ve ever seen
on how to do this is contained in Dr. Martin Seligman’s
classical work, Learned Optimism. The studies done by
Seligman demonstrate two very profound revelations:
- optimism is more effective than pessimism; and 2)
optimism can be learned.
Seligman based his findings on years of statistical
research. He studied professional and amateur athletes,
insurance salespeople, and even politicians running for
office. His scientific studies proved that optimists dra-
matically outperform pessimists. So what Norman
Vincent Peale had been saying for years in his books on
Put on a good debate