MNGT360--Elina Ibrayeva
Individual Learning Assignment
4/29/2014
Optimism Can you image how to live without all four limbs? You cannot eat with your hands, you cannot hug with your arms, you cannot jump with your legs, and you cannot walk with your feet! That is horrible! With the absence of all four limbs, it seems that you can do nothing except waiting to die. Actually, this awful thing is happened to a boy named Nick Vujicic, and if you think his life sucks then you are totally wrong! Nick was an Australian Christian evangelist who born with the absence of all four limbs. When Nick was born, the doctors who delivered him were shocked, the nurses were cried, and even his mother felt very hard to accept him. Although life is extremely unfair to him, he still has a wonderful life with his spirits of optimism. When Nick was a child, he always got laughed at other children because of his defects. Thanks to his parents, they taught Nick using an optimism, positive attitude to face everything, and he did it. He has tried everything he could to experience a normal life, he plays sports, like swimming, surfing, diving, playing golf and so on. Furthermore, Nick graduated from Griffith University with double majors when was 21 years old. He also married a beautiful woman. Moreover, he has given speeches around the world to encourage people live with optimistic, positive, passion, and enthusiasm. Nick has such a wonderful life which beyonds everyone’s expectations. His story tells us the power of optimism! Optimism is a mental attitude, which interprets everything and every situations with the best parts. From the textbook Organizational Behavior which wrote by Fred Luthans, “optimism is a major construct in positive psychology and has long been recognized by both psychologists and people in general”. Before we introduce optimism we need start from positive psychology. From our textbook, I learned that the positive psychology movement emerged from the concern and research of positive features of people. Psychologists like Martin Seligman tried to emphasis the optimistic part of psychology because at that time psychology had focused on the negative parts of human behavior. With the effort of these psychologists, the development of the positive psychology increased dramatic. According to the textbook, the aim of the positive psychology is “to use scientific methodology to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals, groups, organizations, and communities to thrive”. Optimism is an important compose of the positive psychology. The vigorous impact of optimism on psychological researches have revealed remarkable achievements. Like what mentioned above, the story of Nick Vujicic is a good example of the effects of optimism and positive psychology. There are many advantages of optimism which can benefits us a lot. In the first place, optimism people can always have a good mood. It is easy to notice that optimistic people often smiling, and others may be infected by their smilings. Actually, I am that kind of person. I am an optimistic person who loves smiling! My friends often ake me why I can always be excited and happy, and they could be infected to have a good mood as well. Optimistic people can always be happy because they use a positive attitude to face events and situations. When bad thing happens, they feel promising rather than hopeless; when the thing goes worse, they know it will turns right finally; when the thing goes right, they know it happens sooner or later. As the old saying goes, “Everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok then it’s not yet the end.” That is really suitable. In the second place, optimism is good for people’s health. Optimism always has a good feeling which is absolutely good for health. Think positive, live positive, it is good for health. There is an old story about a man who was told unlikely to survive because he had been diagnosed with cancer. After noticing that, the man cherished his life and started to do whatever things made him happy instead of being sad for his cancer. He quited his job and started to travel around the world, he ate delicious food and viewed beautiful sceneries, and he did regular exercise everyday. Later on, he came back to the hospital to do examines. Surprisingly, the doctor found that the cancer disappeared, and the man survived. The man was saved by himself, and he was saved by his positive and optimistic attitude. In the third place, optimism may bring good luck sometimes. It is easy to make sense that optimistic people can attract something good with their positive character. I have that kind of experience. Once, I joined a party with my friends, and this party had many funny games and lottery at the end. My friends and I really enjoyed the games, music, and food , we were all very happy. Lately, when people started to draw the lottery, I was so excited and got a feeling that I would win the lottery. Then when the presenter took a name tag from the lottery boxes which we put our name tags early, a voice in my head told me that the lucky dog was me! Surprisingly, the presenter called the name on the name tag. It was my name! Just like struck by lighting, I felt extremely excited! At that moment, I deeply understood the power of the optimism----it can bring lucky to you. As discussed above, optimism has many benefits and people should try to be positive and optimism. Then how can we be positive and optimism? There are some ways to help people become more positive. Firstly, you should remove all negative influences. Stop pessimism, try to change your mind when something happens, and try to think the positive aspects instead of negative aspects. Secondly, make yourself surrounded by positive influences. Being with your friends who is optimism, listening lively music, watching comedies to relax, and doing whatever makes you happy. Once you are surrounded by positive things, you may get used to it. You will become optimistic gradually because of the influence of the environment. Thirdly, deal with problems calmly. When you meet problems, don’t be afraid of loss just be brave to face it. If you think you cannot make it, then ask people for help. If it still does not work, then try to let it go. Fourth, learn to let go. We can not change what happened in our life, and what should we do is letting go if we do not have better choice. This will make it easier for us to live a happy life because many time we should just let it go. All in all, optimism is really a wonderful thing which could make us have a better life. There are numerous advantages of optimistic, and there are many ways to get it. We should be positive and enjoy the magic of it!