The Curse of Positive Thinking

From the time I was a small child, I have been blessed with the ability to find the positive side of almost everything. Now that I have grown up, it seems to have become a curse.

Certain people that I love with all my heart think that I'm too positive...meaning that I am seeing the world through rose-colored glasses, not realizing how vulnerable and naive I am. Ok, that makes sense. I have been blind-sided because of this, so I can understand. So I'll be cautiously optimistic. My problem is that he is cautiously pessimistic.

The problem with that certain person is that he refuses to accept that he is too negative. In his mind he is prepared for the worst in any situation. But I can't help but think that it has to be a pretty miserable way to live if you're always expecting something bad to happen. If you spend too much time preparing yourself for the worst you may just miss the good things in life because you were too busy hiding around the corner.

I have a way of creating analogies, so just go with me.
I walk down the street on a sunny day and he thinks I should carry an umbrella "just in case." It may be a good idea to carry one but I don't think it has to be open all the time like his. Yeah, I will be ready IF it does rain but when it's always open I'm missing the sunshine. On the other hand, if I never carry the umbrella I could very well end up getting burned by the sun...or soaked by the rain.

So there's got to be a happy medium somewhere.

After all I've been through, especially in the past year, if I can stay positive ANYBODY can. No matter what you experience in life, you are going to get hurt. Bad things happen and they often make you a better person even though you have to get through it and figure out how to prevent it next time.

That's life.

I want to think that good things are going to happen and I live each day looking forward to and trying to create those.

That's living.

Originally posted on Facebook on June 10, 2009
Share