Positive or optimistic?

When talking about the approaches we use in our lives, we could all agree that a positive approach is better than a negative one. Still, I would like to highlight a small, but important difference between positivity and optimism.

Positivity is the state of consciousness that best appears through the saying "everything is good for something". Losing your hand in an accident is not just good for something. It is true that this can motivate you to not only compensate this loss but also to improve, but this could be possible also without it. Positivity in some way suggests that everything is good and in that way, it guides people to the wrong conclusions when they analyze the situation and taking further and necessary steps. In a way, it leads them to optimization instead of maximization. After all, a man can sit with great optimism at home and expect that fate will solve problems for him in a favorable way - which happens occasionally but rarely.

Optimism is much more related to another human saying, "help yourself and God will help you". These people do not see everything as positive and usually do not believe in dependence on destiny. They analyze problems, detect the risks and, nevertheless, take action, so we, therefore, can call them the "risk takers". They look at problems as tasks that need to be solved. If they do not know something, that does not stop them from going any further. They just add to their plan that they need to learn another skill or acquire a certain knowledge or find a person who has the skills or knowledge to help them achieve these goals. In fact, they like these kind of situations even more. They are aware that because of that they will be even more valuable in the future. If positivity is a state of consciousness, then optimism is a way of approaching problems.

I hope I explained why I think it is dangerous to think positively if it is not defined well enough, or why I think it is better to be optimistic. Words we use strongly define the things we decide to do. Although it is true that we give importance to individual words, our experience teaches us that people do not like to invest a lot of energy into research and they love to optimize. And optimization usually happens at the lowest possible level. So even though we all face problems, even very large one, some take it as a challenge, while others give up and go for an easier way. There is a big difference between whether you look at a problem or challenge as a task that needs to be solved, or you look at it as a fate. Such people evaluate the situation based on their current knowledge and abilities, and therefore they usually think they are not capable enough to overcome it. Other types of people encounter the same problems, but look at them in a different way. Through creating tasks they are looking forward to new experiences, knowledge, and skills that they will adopt to achieve the goals.

Projects such as Positive Business Lab are great because the followers will not only be able to get knowledge and role models on these topics but will slowly create a supportive environment that everyone needs among us. Without this, there is no progress, and in particular, there is not enough fast acceleration to make these areas become what we appreciate with our role models. This is only possible with opening up to new things, sharing knowledge and mutual support. And for that, we need self-esteem and optimism!