Pessimism and optimism are overrated. They are just like religion; a set of hopes and beliefs. Realism is surely the true and honest way.
The pessimist complains about the rain; the optimist expects the sun to come out; the realist puts his umbrella up.
Agree. Don't even know why the word pessimism was brought up by someone else. I only mentioned facts.
I don't know what you both are talking about
Your level of happiness really depends on the way you see the world. Pulling an umbrella when it's raining is a realistic way, but you can't do it with an absolutely straight face thinking of nothing, you either love it or hate it. Rain is just one example and how you see the world is important when you do anything. Especially when you have a certain disease on any stage and so on. You know, some people stay happy even when they have cancer or AIDS and literally just a few days left. That's optimism! And sometimes people like that can actually beat their disease with their optimism. The closest example — John Illsley.
And there's people like this old woman who lived downstairs from me, she's more than 100 years old and were always complaining about her health, telling things like "I don't want to live anymore", sometimes even screaming it. Not so many people can live for 100 years and here she goes, able to walk freely even without a cane, able to breath, able to talk, with a relatively clear mind, but "not wanting to live anymore". She's as dark as a human being can get, always talking about her problems, complaining and crying with no end. That's pessimism!
Bottom line — stop complaining, enjoy what you have. You gotta be happy to be successful, otherwise you're doomed to fail.