Our thinking lays down the path on which we walk throughout our life.

There are two roads that can be used to travel the journey we call life, both these roads although leading to the same destination (where we are destined to be) are quite different from one another.

Some may argue that if the destination is the same and if we are inevitably going to be where we are meant to be, it doesn't really matter which road we take,

but I for once strongly disagree because I believe in what Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "It's the journey that matters, not the destination."

But if we take a closer look, we may come to a realization that the roads are actually exactly the same and that they are just made up of pebbles, tar, and cement the same as everyone else's. This means that God has given each individual the same construction material to construct their lives with, to build whatever they may choose.

Which appears to be quite contradictory to what I wrote earlier isn't it?

Then what is it that makes the two roads different?

I believe that it is not the road but the person who walks on the road that makes them different:-

An optimistic walking the road or a pessimist walking the road.

The main difference between an Optimist and a pessimist is that an optimist always tries to find the faintest beam of life in the darkest of situations. They don't blame or guilt-trip themselves for their failures or underachievements which makes a person feel helpless to their current situation, instead they tell themselves that the result was never in their control but the effort they put was and moving forward still is.

They try to find hope and a positive outcome to limit their helplessness.

An optimist also focuses on the specific explanation which although may make them feel helpless in one part of their life which may enable them to perform courageously in others.

Whereas a Pessimist takes a universal view and finds fault in everyone and everything.

For example;-

An optimist will say that my boss was unfair (which is specific and optimistic)

Whereas a Pessimist will say that all bosses are unfair (which is Universal and pessimistic)

Now, a pessimist may feel that he failed because he wasn't good enough and therefore he himself comes to think of himself as a failure or not as good as those around him. He may then throughout his life regard this failure/subject in question as his weakness like we often did with our subjects and hobbies in school.

Just because others are better at a particular subject or an activity than us, it doesn't mean that we are bad at it but simply that others have put more hard work in it than we have. By categorizing one hobby as our strength and others as our weakness, we never realize our full potential. He then starts to doubt his capability instead of taking into consideration other environmental factors that caused his self-doubt which may have nothing to do with him.

This happens in 3 stages. Starting from Adversity to belief leading to consequence.

For example:- Let's assume that you are going to a gym or participating in a contest. Now, on arrival at the scene, you may feel that you're physically in a bad shape compared to others around you or that you don't possess sufficient talent in order to beat others in the competition. (This is the Adversity). In Belief, you will start to actually believe that you are not good enough and start to feel self-conscious leading to the consequence of you getting out of there as fast as you can and never going back. So a situation outside triggered adverse aspects in your belief that everything around you is good but only you are bad.

But what we need to understand from this little example is that the belief system is in our control and that we are the ones ultimately responsible for what we feel.

{IN THIS CASE THE SITUATION HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PERSON'S ABILITIES INSTEAD THE PERSON'S SELF-ESTEEM WAS DAMAGED DUE TO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS}

Ultimately,

EVERYTHING boils down to how you may perceive a situation.

Let's perform a little activity and see how well you perceive this situation:-

For instance, if you are to notice a lump on your body, how will you perceive it?

There is a 5/10 chance that it's probably nothing but there still remains a 5/10 chance that it might very well be cancer.

If you considered the former it means that you have found a temporary cause which gave you hope which in turn helped you limit your helplessness at that time. If you live in the present when you are facing difficult conditions you may realize that there are different ways of looking at it and actually do something about that current situation rather than just feeling helpless about it.

The same applies to our view of the future. I could say that my current failure or status will impact my career, my future, and devastate my entire life and there is nothing I can do about it because nothing is working out OR I could cross this lump in the road and move forward.

Everything depends on our belief system whether we allow the negativity to become a permanent aspect of our thinking or not.

If we are able to move from a permanent and universal way of looking at a situation to looking at a more temporary and specific way which will result in trying to look for a more positive outcome then there is hope.

You may think that no matter what you think of any situation the outcome will remain the same. What is going to happen will happen, anyways.

Yes, to a large extent it is true that in the long run, there is only one outcome no matter how positively we may look at it, Like if you are diagnosed with cancer.

But the only thing that actually matters from the starting line until

the finishing line is your HAPPINESS. You may not control the beginning or the end of your journey but you can control what happens in between. Whether you want to live your life to the fullest potential or spend your time worrying about your situation.

Its really like that question:- Is the glass half empty or half-full?

By Tanya-Goel