Easily one of my favorite mantra’s from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. The question is: Do you want an easy life, or do you want an interesting one?
Fear is boring
Where are you right now?
I was getting coffee with another therapist several weeks ago and as I attempted to glean some advice about my future she asked me: "Where are you right now?"
At first I tried to explain that I was still just in my second quarter of grad school, and when that wasn't the right answer, I tried explaining where I was more mentally and emotionally - pretty happy with where I currently am in life, feeling like I made the right choice switching careers, etc.
Are you An optimist or pessimist? How changing negative thinking can significantly affect your happiness
Yes both optimists and pessimists alike have tended to earn bad reputations in different ways over time - from the Debbie Downer or cynical New Yorker scrooging through life, to the Pollyanna type that gets into trouble for being unrealistic and naive.
But when we dig a little deeper into the actual differences in mindset between more optimistic people and more pessimistic ones, we start to see how we, too, are constantly choosing between the subtle differences in these approaches in our everyday challenges and decisions, and just how tangible the effects of two very different perspectives can have on our greater lives.
