You know the saying:
The pessimist looks at the glass and says, “It is half empty.”
The optimist looks at the glass and says, “It is half full.”
Then there is the one where the realist adds his comment. “I think the glass is full of pee.”
i call myself ‘the eternal optimist’, especially when it comes to sport watching because i like to believe til the absolute last moment that my guy or team can pull it off, even at times when it is bordering on impossible.
and this cartoon from ‘Poorly Drawn Lines’ illustrates it beautifully:
with the original glass scenario, the situation has not changed, only the perspective regarding it. the optimist is choosing to focus on the positive of what the situation has presented and celebrate the existence of something. the pessimist is instead choosing to look at what is missing, and respond to the lack of a thing.
is one better than the other? personally, i don’t think the pessimist is very helpful, because he doesn’t often come up with a plan to change things. pessimism generally deflates, takes the air out of sales, slows down movement.
i do prefer the optimist [maybe cos i generally am one and think i’m pretty cool] but at the same time there can be the danger that the optimist on occasion has their heads in the cloud and their positivity can prevent them from realistically assessing the genuine possibilities in a situation andso ‘hoping for the best’ or ‘anticipating the miracle’ can replace doing the next thing that needs to be done.
so maybe the realist is the best person to have around [because no one wants to drink a glass of pee] but with strong elements of optimism to keep him hopeful, anticipationary and to help him expect the best of people, which is a strong trait of an optimist.
what about you? which of these three would you most closely identify yourself with? anyone have some positives to take from the pessimist?
and do you think it is possible to change from one to the other?
![A night at the [made up] movies](https://brettfish.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/improv-500x383.jpg)
![Erik… [with a K]](https://brettfish.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/german-500x383.jpg)
I would prefer to be around, and to personally be an optimist. I think it’s fair to say they’re the pleasant ones. The worst place to have an optimist… personal finances. I’ve been there, done that, and am living with the reality of having said, “I don’t know how we’ll pay for it, but we’ll figure it out later.” Sometime later I want to back in time and kill that optimist (or optimistic thought).
Optimists breath fresh air into life… We need realists to help keep the optimists from floating away in the wind.
Don’t forget the opportunist, who, whilst everyone else was arguing over how much was in the glass, just drank it!
(Doesn’t work as well with the pee reference!)
I’m an optimist, but my husband tends to be a bit of a pessimist. (Of course being an optimist I usually think of it more as realism 🙂 This actually works out pretty great as we balance each other out quite nicely.
There are actually some advantages to pessimism or a pessimistic nature, but I think we only really see these when living in proper church community, like in Corinthians where each person plays an important part.
For example my husband will check the locks on the door, recognise scams, make sure our food is cooked to the right temperature and lots of other useful stuff. So yes, I think there are some good things, but only if they are balanced.
Fantastic annology!! You are right all the way around! I think it requires a well balanced optimist. A realistic optimist if you will. A person who is able to focus on the positives with a keen balance of reality and possibility within the human grasp. I have been an overboard optimist most of my life and it has gotten me in more dilemma than I care to recall. But I have learned temperance and balance and only optimize what is in my reach and abilIty. There in lies the secret to happiness and success while being an optimist.
Why worry about a glass being half-full or half-empty of pee? Clearly someone out there really needed to relieve himself/herself. I would guess that the person relieving themself were male, because the picture shows no accompanying funnel with the glass. Now, the question needs to be asked: why would a guy pee in a glass, when the world is man’s urinal?
1) He could be playing a practical joke on someone – so advise others not to drink;
2) He may be having his urine tested for something – so support the man through a possible stressful time of uncertainty (and maybe suggest he drink a bit more water, because he may be a bit on the dehydrated side);
3) Finally, he could be locked in a room without any food, water or toilet and instead of wasting precious fluids he decided to save what he could – so maybe someone should notify the authoritites of a missing person.
Thoughts from an imaginative, unrealistic over-analyst.
But on the serious side: I used to regard myself as another eternal optimist… Always enthusiastic, energetic and encouraging (EEE) with any task – building up a hope of the best possible outcome in myself and those around me. Many times this hope would be rewarded, but sometimes there was the odd disappointment. Over time I’ve experience a gradual change of heart, not because of any one event or situation, but simply personal growth over time.
I still am a very EEE person, but I’m now very much more aware of the way my response will influence those around me. I’ve basically become an unrealistic realist – someone who maintains a hope of the best possible outcome in any situation, but remembers that only a few things in this life are “under my control”. More specifically, I can only really control my own reaction and response to something, which may or may not influence its outcome. There are so many “uncontrollables” that have the potential to hurt and disappoint if someone built a hope in the “best possible outcome”.
Three questions that I ultimately asked and have resulted in my change from optimist to unrealistic realist:
1) Why am I placing my hope in this situation, instead of in God? — doubt, insecurity, or a need to feel achievement/success/victory.
2) What effect will this have on others? — obviously I always avoided the pessimistic response in a situation because that would break a person, but what became equally dangerous was having others build-up misplaced hope. I can be very influencial; and having someone build-up failing hope because of my EEE only to lead to dissapointment, was not cool.
3) What would Jesus do? — Jesus would not have built-up a false hope in His followers. He had them believe wholeheartedly in Him. They put their faith, hope, trust in Him and not in a desired outcome of a situation. Which is a pretty logical thing to do if you ask me, because no one is worth placing your hope in more than the Creator of heaven and earth, the Top Dog in control of every “uncontrollable”.
For the Christ-follower, curious, or Christian out there who would like to, check out:
1) Lamentations 3:19-33; and
2) Philippians 2:1-18
Both are pretty cool pieces of awesomeness!
dude, you are a legend, well written, love your energy and positive vibes always [and going to play hockey fri night – friendly game with a club in berkeley, whoohoo!] thankx for posting.
The glass is obviously twice as big as it should be. This outlook makes me an engineer.
By nature, engineers are optimists.
Later!
ha ha second person to point that out, must be an engineering mantra… nice one!