Glass half full/Glass half empty...... The optimism versus pessimism theory!

well,james,loli am also going to think aloud.talk about co-incidence!!!i just finished giving a lecture(nothing new)to my hubby,he was about to drink a glass half full of not so fresh water.i had given a full glass of water to my kid in the morning,he drank half and left it on the table uncovered and now hubby......you know ,i am a total optimist(but not when it comes to manners.)

Pesimistic and Optimistic.. Both of them been there. Pesimistic , I am a "Major Weaper!!" just like Jude Law in Holiday movie, LOLOptimistic makes me upset when for example i want a laptop and a camera, but since 2 years i can't manage my money to buy two of them LOL then i goes down-down-down If someone watch my mood graphic he will see that it's looks like a Hangseng Forex graphic. LOL I have learn to let go some that i must buried, And the new blank papers are ready to write, like i meet someone that cares for me and be a serious boyfriend,..may be..or something..But then again i manage to not to be foolish no more. Been there, fall once is a mistake, but fall twice is stupid. Takes a live time to make a good position in a heart and decisions for the future, one small choice we make will influence everything. Be very careful but Hurry!! dian you getting older, worries and worries.. Control and miss control for everyday. I determined my self for living without an EGO but yes, dian its a human, sometimes she changes and shock by her own act. Happy posting always, oxox'dian from bali island.

Question is James, Can we really define the size of the glass ? The influences of people around us, the society, the envoirnment, the world at large and all that which happens around us does affect us a great deal. So if we keep the glass small and keep our expectations limited to what happens around us then i suppose one can in an easier way look at the glass being more than half full rather than partially empty. To be specific. If i was to relate to life only around me and think optimistically about my self and my future then it's a little easier rather then when i start getting affected and expand my realm of expectations and happiness to those around and the future and what's going to to happen,fear and so on. Hope i'm making sense.

There could be some truth in that since I am always finding the glass half full."Makes store list for smaller glasses.." I read something awhile back that fits this discussion perfectly.. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

I can agree with you James. The prime problem with the society is that everyone wants everything regardless of their worth. It is not a sin or a shameful thing to be born in particular strata of a society. What maters is whether you life up to what you are made for. Every one cannot be the ruler. We need to have some citizens too in a kingdom. If we understand that the people need to have different stuff to attain different level half of the misery is gone. We will come to a level of being happy with a just a glass in our hand regardless of its size and regardless of what it contains.

i hear you,james..i think also simplicity is the main source of satisfaction,some people have everything and die before they reach satisfaction,yet some people see too much in something that's too little...do you know that some people ignore what they already have and 100% focus on the empty half of the glass,thinking that their life will finally start when the glass is entirely full?they don't realize that untill they lose the full half they didn't appreciate,or die without filling the empty half(according to them..die before their life even starts)...unrealistic expectations in life aren't that wrong or misleading,they can be our inner push sometimes and we end up getting much we didn't expect while trying to reach them...the problem in that case is we hold our life,we make everything in it seem to be depending on those unrealistic expectations or goals...if i knew my biggest dream was to come true tomorrow,i wouldn't waste today waiting for it,i would still live it while dreaming of tomorrow...maybe tomorrow wouldn't even come and i would end up losing today and tomorrow......i get what you mean by saying''a large glass filled to half way is neither half full nor half empty''...if we moved what we had in that large glass to a smaller glass,it would be entirely full with even some excess.

Yes, that is the engineer's answer to the problem. A glass filled to its half-way point is neither half full or half empty. The contents are in the wrong size glass. Change the glass and the problem is solved.

Yes, your pondering's make sense. Most of the time, I'm a "glass half full" person. I do try to see "the silver lining" in situations. Unfortunately I have spend some time around "glass half empty" people and sometimes they can wear you down! I think your "smaller glass" idea is great. Have you read a book called "Don't sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff"? It's somewhat based on a similar premise. I highly recommend it.

Personally, I don't think it has anything to do with the glass at all... I think the important question is [b]what's inside the glass? [/b] I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist.. I'm a realist.

Great out of the box thinking. I love it! I'm more of a glass half full person myself. I recognize what's not quite right in my life and I realize that it could be a lot worse.

Hi there James. I think that a good view combining the optimistic and pessimistic views is "expect the worst but hope for the best" - the good thing in this is that you will never be dissapointed to much as you were expecting something even worse to happen. The thing is that it is kind of hard to follow. It is well known among psychologists that a happy person is drawn to attract other happy persons around him, and also make them happy. I watched a stand up comedy movie from America a while back called "The 3 amigos" and one of them said a very true thing (in my opinion anyway): Don't cry about sh!t, make it happen !

Hello James. Once again, we are in the same line of thinking (or questioning if you want). Isn't looking for the silver lining more of an optimist way of looking at things? Be it a small or large glass? So that makes your pondering a little confusing to me as well as I get it. You know me, the more you elaborate, the more I get it as well as 10 questions would pop up in my head for one line. Goals no matter which way we look at it, they are influenced by what we grow up with and what we still have around us. I know I have blamed my unhappiness the last few years in such societal "expectations" but then I thought more about it and you are right, no one is to blame but myself for not really getting into what is personally motivating for me. But part of that personal motivation is to do something that makes me happy and makes those around me happy. Finding balance and compromises between those two is quite difficult and I have decided to make myself the priority and give those around me a little bit of myself as well when I can. I am still figuring things out but I have never been happier and have never known myself as I know myself now. I still have a long way to go and I know I am going around in circles again. What I am trying to say is that I have realized there is so much harm that pessimism brings. It locks us in a rut full of regrets, blame, hatred and misery. Full-on optimism WITHOUT action is no better. The way we think helps us in our daily lives. I would rather wake up and shake off that nasty feeling of being miserable. I do not ever want to be that person again who has always something wrong going on. Yes, things do go wrong but I have the OPTION to fix it. Pessimism will only hold us back from what we could do.

LOL that is ooo so true but why dont we all think like that? for me though I would say I am a half full type of girl always optimistic and ready to beat the world!

I have no idea how I missed this discussion earlier, but better late than never. Definitely glass half full for me. But I like your premise: I think that a lot of people do this naturally as they age or come to a more realistic understanding of life and their place in it. Big glasses are a young person's thing. And just think: if you have a big glass half full and put it in a little glass, you now have a full glass. Of course that is no doubt what you were getting at. Lash

Very good example dear. I once started a discussion on a topic like this but I did not get many responses. I would like to say more on this topic tomorrow as I have to leave now. I am going to add you as friend.

Very good thinking, I like it. Maybe more people kook at life different after they read this.