Optimists of the world unite!

Hello. My name is Dana and I’m a recovering pessimist. I’m about 13 years optimistic. I can’t nail down the exact time and date of my last negative thought, like an alcoholic with their last drink, because I’m still having them. They creep up on me like kudzu on a pine. I need a flame-thrower or maybe a goat. I have 5 horses, but I don’t think horses eat kudzu. Really what I need are five really positive goats.

Why do I call myself a born-again optimist? The first time I was born, January 9, 1972, I was born optimistic. Babies are not born negative. Pessimism is learned from what we see and hear around us and for some this education starts very early on. Before you know it, it takes over your life.

Before I became a born-again optimist, if someone told me a hardship was an opportunity, I looked at them like they were crazy. When God closes a door he opens a window. I wish you’d jump out that window, I’d think. Behind every cloud is a silver lining. I want to strangle you with that lining. They obviously didn’t understand my difficult situation and were not being realistic. I was a REALIST! I thought I saw things how they really were. What I didn’t know then was that you can change your reality simply by HOW you think about it. It is not the situation that controls your thoughts. It is your THOUGHTS that control the situation.

It took me years to see this as a universal truth and maybe you are looking at your screen right now like I’ve got three heads. Maybe if I did I could put two of them to work on that kudzu. But this way of thinking is a gift that can change your life and I want to share it with everyone. I’m by no means perfect at this…I still get down, still have doubts, and still lose faith at times. (Like when we had two years of unrelenting car repair bills!) But once you see the results this paradigm shift can produce in your life, you will be eager to try and use the power of it.

This blog will be the confessions of a born-again optimist (hereby known as a BAO) because as recovering pessimists we often need to own up to our transgressions. Their will be positivity breakdowns and indulgent self pity. I will definitely have times of weakness in which I’ll be complaining, venting and otherwise whining about things. There may even be some screaming. But my hope is that by sharing with you some of the things I’ve learned I can inspire you to follow the path of the hopeful, the positive, and the sanguine.