Mediums Best Top 10 Strategies To Become More Optimistic

It pays to become more optimistic. Optimists are happier, more relaxed, and healthier.

It pays to become more optimistic. I can say this with full conviction because some time ago I would have called myself a convinced pessimist. “I’d rather expect the worst to be not so disappointed,” I always thought. And this calculation has worked out often enough. I was positively surprised when things didn’t turn out as bad as I thought they would. And I already felt prepared for the worse when it really happened.

But I was not happier. The optimists are happier. Those who first of all basically assume that the world and life are good. Those who have hope. Those who see the positive. Those who trust that everything has its meaning and that everything will be good in the end.

Our thinking determines how we feel. If we focus on the positive things, we feel better than if we always assume the worst. That is why optimistic people are more relaxed and satisfied.

You can learn to become more optimistic

Optimism and pessimism are by no means fixed personality traits. Rather, it is our way of thinking. And how we think is something we can influence. In this way, we can also become more optimistic.

Pessimists tend to focus more on the negative things in life. For them, the glass is half-empty, because they concentrate on what is missing, what is not good. For optimistic people, however, the glass is half full. Because they focus their attention mainly on the good things that are there.

So if you want to become more optimistic (and thus happier, more relaxed, and healthier), the following strategies can help you to change your focus and to see and expect more positive than negative in the future.

10 strategies on how to become more optimistic

In the following, I will present 10 tips on how to become more optimistic. The first 5 strategies help you to get a more optimistic attitude towards life and to become a real optimist.

Strategies 6–10 will help you to get out of pessimistic thinking in very concrete situations and to take an optimistic attitude.

1. Start a gratitude diary

A gratitude diary is a wonderful way to learn to focus more on the positive things in life. Becoming more optimistic is easier than you think.

If you want to follow only one strategy to become more positive and optimistic, I would strongly recommend the gratitude diary.

Buy a nice little booklet or notebook and sit down for a few minutes every evening and write down what is good in your life. Ask yourself this question:

What is good in my life? What has happened to me today? Where do I have it better than many other people? Where could anything have been much worse? What am I satisfied with today? What did I rejoice/what did I laugh about today? What can I be proud of?

Of course, you don’t have to answer all these questions. But if you find at least 3–5 answers each evening, you will notice after a very short time how your focus shifts towards the positive and how your new perception makes you much happier and more relaxed.

2. Start the day positively

For a positive basic attitude, it is important to set positive accents. And you should do this first thing in the morning. Because how we start the day determines the mood of the day, so to speak.

And if you start the day in a negative way, you directly put a negative damper on it. Get into the habit of thinking positively, hopefully, and optimistically in the morning.

That means: No more stress in the morning and nerve-racking thoughts about which appointments are on the schedule, what you still have to do, how you should manage this crazy presentation, and how your boss will torture you again afterward. No, from now on you focus on the positive. Therefore ask yourself already in the morning:

What am I looking forward to today? What good can happen today? What do I want to achieve today?

3. Look for the good in the bad

To become more optimistic means to see more of the good things in life. Of course, there are still stupid people, stressful situations, and dark days in our lives. But even with these “bad” things, you can train your focus on the positive.

You can do this by looking for the little positive spark every time someone or something is stupid.

From now on, whenever you get angry about something or someone, ask yourself: What could be the positive thing in this situation?

4. Stay away from negative people

There are people who whine all day long and complain about everything. They have an opinion on everything — and always a bad one. The people are all wrong. The politicians are all corrupt. Soon there will be the next world war. And soon the end of the world is predicted again.

These are absolute energy thieves — and you should avoid them if you want to become a little more positive and optimistic. Because they suck out everything positive from you. Your hope, your good thoughts, your goodwill, your positive energy.

5. Believe in someone or something

And another effective strategy for an optimistic attitude to life: believe in something. “Faith describes a basic attitude of trust,” as Wikipedia describes it.

Sure, the term “faith” is often used in a religious context. But you can also believe without a religious conviction. Trust in something. One can believe in God or deities, but also in oneself or in fate … no matter what it is.

Personally, my faith helps me to think more optimistically, and my faith helps me to think that everything that happens to me in life has some greater meaning. It should be so. Everything is okay the way it is. And no matter what happens, I’m going to deal with it.

What do you trust in? What do you want to believe in so that you develop a more optimistic attitude?

6. Become aware of what you have already survived

A pessimist is always afraid that something will go wrong. The dentist will hurt me. The birthday party will be a flop. I’m sure someone else will get the job I want so much. We’re bound to miss the connecting train because the transfer time is so short.

What stress. And it’s completely and exclusively in your head and through the negative thoughts, you have from the start.

We’ve all had bad luck at one time or another. We’ve all missed the train. Or not got a job. Not every party that we organized was a huge success. And yes, very few of us have never had pain at the dentist. And yet we all survived it.

And you have survived many other things you were afraid of. The first day at your new job. The separation from your first lover. Your last trip to the dentist.

So if you are once again afraid of a situation and fear that a catastrophe is coming your way, then remember: You will survive.

Consciously remember situations where you had a similar fear and remember that you are still there and that you have mastered the situation. This gives you strength and is an effective remedy against fear.

7. Directing in your head cinema

Your head cinema is just starting to take off and you can already see the catastrophe in your mind? And you just can’t manage to get out of your head, even if you notice that you are not feeling well at all?

Then play your part in your head — and do it like a movie director. Write a happy ending with your thoughts, just like it is obligatory in every good Hollywood movie.

How can your movie end well? What good can happen? If all your demons lose and good power wins — what does that mean for your movie? What will the end look like then? And what did you do for it as a movie hero?

This method not only helps you to calm your thoughts a little bit and to get out of your negative thinking. It gives you hope and maybe it also gives you one or the other good hint of how you can bring about a happy ending.

8. Calm yourself

Surely you have also been in a situation that someone else close to you has suffered a lot from his pessimistic thoughts.

Surely you did something to reassure these people who are important to you. You stood by them. You held hands. You gave them courage. You looked for ways that he or she could survive the fall of the falls. Maybe you did not contradict them — but somehow you tried to ease their fear.

If you now find yourself in such a situation, ask yourself:

How would you give courage to a close person in this situation? What would you say to him or her? What could calm him or her? How would you do something good for him or her? What advice would you give him or her?

Change your perspective in your thoughts, take a little distance, and look at your situation. And then be yourself a loving mother, a good friend, or an understanding colleague. What can you say to yourself that gives you courage and strength?

9. Bring reality into play

No matter what images we imagine in our heads, they rarely correspond to reality. No matter whether we paint them optimistically colorful or whether we are pessimistic pessimists.

Reality usually lies in between. Therefore, it can be very helpful to systematically find the middle ground between the pessimistic and the optimistic extreme. And it works like this:

1. ask yourself: “What could happen in the worst case scenario?”

And then paint the blackest picture you can imagine. A living scenario of your fears and anxieties. How does the whole story end when everything that can only go wrong goes wrong?

2. now ask yourself: “What could happen in the very best case?”

And here you imagine a scenario that could not be better. What would happen if everything went well? How would you feel? What wishes and hopes would come true? Be really, really optimistic.

3. now we are looking for a realistic variant. Ask yourself: “What will realistically happen?”

Remember: Reality is mostly in the middle between the pessimistic and the optimistic extreme. Now please choose a living scenario in which you enter all your realistic assumptions and thoughts. That which realistically can really happen.

With this exercise, you will be able to develop a realistic scenario and thus free yourself from the black mark. Because in reality, rarely all the fears that we rack our brains over all day long become true.

10. Seek the solution, not the fear

You are panicking that you will not pass the exam? You have given up all hope that you will still find the right man in life? You are once again in the black and you are afraid that your long-planned garden party tomorrow will be a complete flop because it is supposed to rain all day long?

Yes, maybe you have already made bad experiences. And maybe your fears are really justified.

But the important thing is: Such pessimistic thoughts won’t help you any further. They only make you despair of something that is not yet clear. Your thoughts pull you down and rob you of all motivation. And certainly, you get angry when you have such thoughts, or you are sad. But it does not help you with your problem.

The next time you paint black, then consciously detach yourself from your negative thoughts and try to think solution-oriented instead. Ask yourself one or more of the following questions:

What can I do or what could help me to prevent what I fear from happening? What can I do if the worst-case scenario occurs? When have I ever been able to handle such a situation well? What helped me back then? And how can I transfer this to my current situation?

In this way, you no longer remain trapped in your negative thoughts, but you can take action — and thus prepare yourself for possible difficulties. This automatically takes away the size of your fears — and a big piece of your fear.

Start directly

I hope I could show you with these tips that it is not that difficult to become an optimist. Maybe you would like to try it right now?

Then choose 1–2 possibilities from the first 5 optimism tips to get a more optimistic attitude towards life.

1. Start a gratitude diary
2. Start the day positively
3. Look for the good in the bad
4. Stay away from negative people
5. Believe in someone or something

And then just try out what I presented to you there for 30 days. For example, keep a gratitude diary for 30 days. Or spend 30 days trying to find the good in the bad over and over again. Or develop a good morning routine and start the day positively and hopefully. Because becoming more optimistic with these exercises is easier than you think.

And then do a quick check after 30 days: How do you feel? And have you perhaps already become a little more hopeful and relaxed? Have you already made progress in becoming more optimistic?

In difficult situations and if you find yourself thinking pessimistically, tips 6–10 can help you. Just choose what works best for you and try it out for yourself.

1. Become aware of what you have already survived
2. Directing in your head cinema
3. Calm yourself
4. Bring reality into play
5. Seek the solution, not the fear

You will see: Life is often a lot better and easier than we think. And the energy that we waste on our worries and fears can be used much better for the beautiful things in life.

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