Is there any shade of grey? Can one be pragmatic, yet an optimist, simultaneously?
As for yours truly, I am sad to admit that I am a pessimist. But I am desperately trying to see the glass as half full!
Our beliefs determine our reality, and I am no longer comfortable with having a reality and a life that I find to be unacceptable.
Are these points of view selections, or are we programmed to have certain beliefs?
2007-04-09 07:09:06 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Your starting to touch into the nature/nurture debate there at the end.. and that's one that's going to be argued for many years yet.. just how much of what we are is pre-wired and how much isn't.. but the reality of it is that there are lots of shades of gray.. and that one can change the way they view the world.. but it won't be easy... the way you view the world is a hard set habit (at least the part you can change right?) and just think of how long you have been allowing this habit to be a part of your life? In other words don't expect to break this cycle over night.. it took a long time for you to get here.. it'll take a long time to move on.. on the bright side you are obviously in a place where you are ready to move on or you wouldn't be asking a question like this... but before you go turning your entire world upside down.. ask yourself if it's the best way to get where you want to be.. in other words.. do you really need to change your view on life? or just a few things in your life? what is truly bothering you.. is it in your control or not? if it's not in your control.. say world events or something.. can just doing something to help be enough for you?.. I guess in the end it comes down to knowing yourself.. and no one but you can help you with that...
P.S. You become what you surround yourself with.. if you are surrounded by pessimists.. you will be one.. surrounded by optimists... well they will start to rub off on you.. maybe not convert you.. but it will help.
2007-04-09 07:17:09 · answer #1 · answered by pip 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm 93% a realist You are a realist like me. You use evidence and decide if life is good or bad. You believe that life can change for the good or bad. You are probably someone who never assumes. and 42% an optimist, 0% pessimist :O I thought I was going to be an optimist, but after having read the text.. I have to agree :)
2016-04-01 05:30:03 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Greetings. I do not see myself as an optimist or a pessimist truly. I see myself as a REALIST, though others would say I'm being a pessimist. People try to get me to be something other than who I am. If I would HAVE TO pick one or the other, then I'd go with the latter. I just don't find myself being an optimist or as they say "an eternal optimist"... at least not yet. I think though that I may have to become either a realist-optimist or a positive-pessimist. Oxymorons right? That's my bag. Peace!
2007-04-09 12:59:25 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am neither. I am a realist.
This is the shade of gray you are asking about.
Hope for the best, but expect the worst. Realize that the likelihood of extreme success is equal to that of extreme failure. Most things end up better than the pessimist predicts, but never as rosy as the optimist expects. Life is full of mediocrity, and what we make of it is far more important than the reality itself.
Bottom line, unlike a pessimist, I don't sit around moping that things could get worse; and unlike an optimist, I fully realize that not every cloud has a silver lining, and that this is true of even the pretty white fluffy ones.
2007-04-09 08:54:02 · answer #4 · answered by PCGuyIV 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i am a fairly optimistic person, but we all have our down sides from time to time. i wouldn't say that we are necessarily "programmed" to have these certain beliefs or points of view or whatever you may call it but i do think that it depends greatly on how you were brought up, the environment you were raised in or are currently in. i don't know if you can necessarily change whether you view things pessimistically or optimistically but the way things are going for you in live do weigh heavily upon it. we see things how we see them and different things or people can help change that for each of us.
2007-04-09 07:18:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
2007-04-09 08:44:19 · answer #6 · answered by Giggly Giraffe 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
An incurable optimist.
I roll with the punches; I bend with the wind; I fall down 7 but come up 8; I always land on my feet; when I get hit with a life problem, I solve it; the glass is always half-full; I always turn a negative into a positive; I turn defeat into some form of victory; I turn the other cheek; and I never cried over spilt milk.
2007-04-09 07:19:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm more of an optimist,but I used to be very pessimistic.
2007-04-10 07:27:34 · answer #8 · answered by Candi Apples 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am pessimistic about the near future, optimistic about the far future.
2007-04-09 07:13:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is one in the middle and that Is a "REALIST"
which is me , I am not a pessimist ,neither an optimist which is a dreamer.
2007-04-09 07:22:26 · answer #10 · answered by young old man 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋