“The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts,” explains Dweck, and people with a growth mindset have “a zest for teaching and learning, an openness to giving and receiving feedback, and an ability to confront and surmount obstacles.” In a “growth mindset,” however, we thrive on challenges and see failure as a springboard for growth. And due to this belief system, we strive for the illusion of success by staying comfortable and avoiding failure at all costs. In a “fixed mindset,” we believe we have no agency over our growth, intelligence, and creative ability. In her book, Mindset, psychologist Carol Dweck explains that people operate from one of two mindsets, a fixed or growth mindset. And so she cultivates a mindset around this mantra: “My beliefs have the power to change what I see and perceive.” Principle #1: An optimist understands the fundamental rule that seeing is not believing, rather, believing is seeing. Adopt them, practice them, and live by them, and you too shall rise to new heights while bearing a protective cloak of optimism around you. Inspired by the seven hills of Rome and this very idea that we can leverage our own qualities and characteristics to create something beautiful from within us, I’ve laid out below the seven principles of the philosophy of optimism. Rome, itself, played a crucial role in its own rise to power.Īnd similarly, only you can give rise to yourself. They demonstrate how Rome’s innate core qualities-its proximity to a major river and close access to the sea, its hills for scoping and plateaus for protection, and the clean drinking water from springs in the Apennine mountains-gifted the city many geographic advantages over surrounding areas. In the book, The Seven Hills of Rome: A Geological Tour of the Eternal City, the authors argue that over the years, historians, political analysts, and sociologists have discussed the question of “what made Rome so much more influential than its neighboring cities” without considering one key and underlying factor that led to its initial rise: Rome’s geology. Given that optimism is a term that originates from the Latin word Optimus, which means "the best," perhaps it’s only fitting to first cast our gaze upon the region from where this word was first unearthed. So, what are these principles of optimism? The question that we should be asking, however, is not “how can I become more optimistic,” but “what daily principles can I live by so that I can become more optimistic by nature?” This reflects what Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher once wrote, “don't explain your philosophy embody it.” And the only way to embody a philosophy is to practice it day in, day out. Pessimists can in fact learn to be optimists and not through mindless devices like whistling a happy tune or mouthing platitudes, but by learning a new set of cognitive skills.” I have found, however, that pessimism is escapable. “A pessimistic attitude may seem so deeply rooted as to be permanent. At least that’s what positive psychologist Martin Seligman explains in his book, Learned Optimism: Perhaps not everyone is an optimist, but everyone can learn how to become one. And it allows me to recognize the beauty that is all around me, the meaning behind my struggles, and the infinite blessings in my life. It helps me rise back up whenever I fall. It offers me a boundless oasis of hope and possibility. It fills me with the curiosity and wonder to keep exploring, learning, and growing. My personal life philosophy is anchored in an ocean of optimism. It’s a way of life-a perspective or a lens through which to evaluate desirable and undesirable events as they unfold in our day-to-day. It’s an attitude in how we carry ourselves forward. It’s a philosophy in how we interpret the events that happen in our everyday life. Optimism is both, a philosophy and an attitude. The attitude to which he refers to above is what we know as optimism. Poet Khalil Gibran once wrote that “your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens."
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