
Increased average life expectancy has increased worldwide: across the globe, life expectancy was just 30 years in 1820 and 56 years in 1960 today, it’s around 70 years worldwideĪnd on top of those statistics, let’s talk about the elephant in the room that might be of particular interest for any of you who have had to deal with the challenges associated with mental illness: while there’s still work to do to break through stigma, we have come a very long way and treatment is now far more compassionate and (thankfully!) effective than the dark old days when anyone deemed to be something other than ‘normal’ would be thrown into a lunatic asylum to rot away while undergoing treatments that would make the Marquis de Sade look like Mother Teresa.
An enormous increase in literacy levels: in 1960 only 42 percent of people in the world could read and write today, it’s roughly 83 percent. A rise in gender equality in many countries around the world, not just industrialised nations. A decrease in extreme poverty: from around 36 percent in 1990 to just 10 percent in 2015. com/us/blog/finding-meaning-in-imperfect-world/201811/5-ways-in-which-the-world-has-been-dramatically), we’ve seen: Yes we’re in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis and we’re dealing with the whims of politicians more interested in their own power than anything else, but let’s talk about what has changed for the better: as noted in a 2018 article on Psychology Today (find it at: psychologytoday. If you’ve turned on the news lately, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the entire world is a dumpster-fire and that 2020 has been nothing but a smouldering pile of manure (especially since good news stories are few and far between in terms of what the major outlets tend to cover).īut the truth of the matter is that things aren’t getting worse they’ve actually been getting considerably better for quite a long time, in spite of all the challenges we’re facing. Being realistically optimistic means that you’re able to deal with things even if they don’t work out the way you’d like them to - and that helps you to respond more thoughtfully to events, rather than just reacting to them, which gives you much greater control of how you experience this thing called life. Realistic optimism helps to give you the courage to take chances and try new things, and it gives you the courage to face your fears and overcome them. Having an overall positive mindset and being able to objectively view setbacks as challenges rather than disasters means that you are better equipped to deal with the challenges of life. #Word for unrealistic optimism how to#
Life is full of the good, the bad and the ugly, and the challenge for each of us is to learn how to respond to what happens around us (and within us) in a way that keeps us moving forward and growing that’s where realistic optimism helps to frame things in a more positive-yet-realistic way.Optimism is defined as “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something”.