Is your glass half full or half empty? This age-old question talks about the way a person views the world. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? An optimist can be defined as someone who tends to be hopeful and confident about the future. On the other hand, a pessimist can be defined as someone who tends to see the worst aspect of things and believe that the worst will happen. There are some key things that will tell you whether you have the glass half full or half empty.

When something minor happens, an optimist will see this as a temporary setback. A pessimist however will see this as something permanent. When something small happens, there isn’t much anyone can do, its temporary and can be overcame. A pessimist however will see this small setback as something that will be permanent. Often small things like this will even make you better and improve your life. Instead of taking these things so seriously, it is important to learn from your mistakes.

Optimists also see events as singular and specific whereas a pessimist will see something as connected. Optimists are able to decipher whether something is an induvial event that just needs time and attention to figure out or if it’s a connected chain of bad things. Pessimist think everything bad thing is connected and trying to ruin their lives. Let’s be real, there is no way that is true. If every bad thing in one’s life was connected you would probably be in a bad movie.

Lastly, a defining quality of pessimists is that they internalize things that happen. Whereas, an optimist externalizes them. Instead of taking an event or comment and making it all about themselves and their weaknesses an optimist will find a way to find the good about it and relate it to an experience.

It is important to see the good in everything a person does. If someone stays a pessimist their entire life, there will be consequences. It isn’t healthy for someone to constantly think bad is following them and to internalize their feelings. Being an optimist isn’t as hard as someone may seem and most importantly being a optimist doesn’t mean all rainbows and butterflies, life is real and things happen but its important to see the bright side.