乐观和悲观都是强大的力量，我们每个人都必须在这两者之间做出选择，从而给我们对未来的展望和预期染上或明或暗的色彩。
Chooe Optimim--By Rich De Vo
If you expect omething to turn out badly, it probably will.Peimim i eldom diappointed. But the ame principle alo work in revere. If you expect good thing to happen, they uually do! There eem to be a natural caue-and-effect relationhip between optimim and ucce.
Optimim and peimim are both powerful force, and each of u mut chooe which we want to hape our outlook and our expectation. There i enough good and bad in everyone’ life — ample orrow and happine, ufficient joy and pain — to find a rational bai for either optimim or peimim. We can chooe to laugh or cry, ble or cure. It’ our deciion: From which perpective do we want to view life? Will we look up in hope or down in depair?
I believe in the upward look. I chooe to highlight the poitive and lip right over the negative. I am an optimit by choice a much a by nature. Sure, I know that orrow exit. I am in my 70 now, and I’ve lived through more than one crii. But when all i aid and done, I find that the good in life far outweigh the bad.
An optimitic attitude i not a luxury; it’ a neceity. The way you look at life will determine how you feel, how you perform, and how well you will get along with other people. Converely, negative thought, attitude, and expectation feed on themelve; they become a elf-fulfilling prophecy. Peimim create a dimal place where no one want to live.[由wwW.HaoZuoWen.com整理]
Year ago, I drove into a ervice tation to get ome ga. It wa a beautiful day, and I wa feeling great. A I walked into the tation to pay for the ga, the attendant aid to me, “How do you feel?” That eemed like an odd quetion, but I felt fine and told him o. “You don’t look well,” he replied. Thi took me completely by urprie. A little le confidently, I told him that I had never felt better. Without heitation, he continued to tell me how bad I looked and that my kin appeared yellow.
By the time I left the ervice tation, I wa feeling a little uneay. About a block away, I pulled over to the ide of the road to look at my face in the mirror. How did I feel? Wa I jaundiced? Wa everything all right? By the time I got home, I wa beginning to feel a little queay. Did I have a bad liver? Had I picked up ome rare dieae?
The next time I went into that ga tation, feeling fine again, I figured out what had happened. The place had recently been painted a bright, biliou yellow, and the light reflecting off the wall made everyone inide look a though they had hepatiti! I wondered how many other folk had reacted the way I did. I had let one hort converation with a total tranger change my attitude for an entire day. He told me I looked ick, and before long, I wa actually feeling ick. That ingle negative obervation had a profound effect on the way I felt and acted.
The only thing more powerful than negativim i a poitive affirmation, a word of optimim and hope. One of the thing I am mot thankful for i the fact that I have grown up in a nation with a grand tradition of optimim. When a whole culture adopt an upward look, incredible thing can be accomplihed. When the world i een a a hopeful, poitive place, people are empowered to attempt and to achieve.
选择乐观
假如你预期某事会有不妙的结果，结局也许就真的不妙——悲观的想法很少落空。但这个法则反过来也同样成立：如果你自感鸿运当头，通常就会有好运降临！在乐观与成功之间似乎有一种天然的因果关系。
乐观和悲观都是强大的力量，我们每个人都必须在这两者之间做出选择，从而给我们对未来的展望和预期染上或明或暗的色彩。每个人的生命中都有足够多的幸与不幸——数不清的哀伤和喜悦，欢欣与痛苦——给我们乐观或悲观的理由。我们可以选择哭或是笑，祝福或是诅咒。我们可以选择用什么样的眼光去看待生活——是昂首去寻找希望抑或垂头在绝望中逡巡。
我喜欢向上看。我会把注意力集中在生活中光明的一面，忽略那些阴暗的角落。天性和个人选择是我成了一个乐观主义者。当然，我知道生命中总有伤痛，年逾古稀的我曾不止一次经历过危机。但是，当一切尘埃落定，我发现生命中的美好远远比丑恶为多。
乐观的态度不是一种奢侈品；它是我们生活的必需。你看待生活的方式将决定你的感受、你的表现，以及你与他人相处得怎样。反过来，悲观的想法、态度和预期也会自成因果：它们是能自我实现的预言。悲观会制造出无人愿望的黑暗处所。
几年前，我驱车去一个加油站加油，那天天气很好，我的心情也不错。当我走进加油站付油钱时，服务员问我：“你感觉怎样？”问题问得有点古怪，我感觉很好，于是便照实回答了他。他又说：“你气色不好。”他的话让我非常吃惊。我告诉他我的感觉从未像现在这么好，但说此话时已不像原来那么底气十足。而他则毫无顾忌的继续大讲我的气色是如何的差劲，还说我肤色发黄。
在离开加油站的时候，我觉得有点心神不宁。驶出一个街区之后，我把车泊在路旁，从镜中审视自己的脸。我怎么了？我得了黄疸病吗？是不是有什么异常？等我回到家里，我开始觉得有点恶心。我的肝脏出了毛病吗？是不是染上了什么怪病？
再次光顾那么加油站的时候，我已恢复正常，感觉良好，而且明白了各种蹊跷。这个地方不久前把墙漆成了一种鲜亮的、胆汁般的黄色，这颜色使置身其中的每一个人都给映得像得了肝炎。不知道有多少人也曾有过和我相似的经历。和每一个完全陌生的人的一次短短对话竟然改变了我整整一天的心情。他说我面有病容，很快我就真的觉得不舒服，仅仅是一个消极的看法就大大影响了我感觉和行为的方式。
唯一比否定态度更有力量的是一个积极的肯定，一句充满乐观与希望的话语。最让我心存感激的事情之一就是我生长在一个有着光荣的乐观主义传统的国度。当一种文化从整体上采取了一种积极向上的态度，不可思议的事情也能变成现实。当人们把世界看作一个光明与希望之地，它们将被赋予努力进取和成就功业的力量。