Optimism: The First Line Of Defence Against Covid-19
Me: How’s Mike? Is he working tonight?
Friend: He’s off for 2 or 3 days. He works the graveyard shift.
Me: And why do you call it the graveyard shift? I think the night shift is better.
Friend: I didn’t come up with that phrase. That’s what they call it if you’re still at work after midnight.
Me: I know you didn’t come up with it. It’s just that ‘graveyard shift’ sounds a bit pessimistic while ‘night shift’ is like an optimistic option.
This is an excerpt from a chat I had with a friend last week and something in this conversation piqued my interest: how we humans are wired to accept negativity as a norm.
Almost everywhere we go and everything we do, we encounter negative situations. They could be failures, rejections, disappointments, heartbreaks, etc. And as a result, we’ve built up a form of mental cushion to accept the effects of these situations and/or failures, even before they happen. This cushion is called pessimism. And even most people that call themselves realists are tilting towards pessimism.
While pessimism may breed fear, lethargy, and acceptance of defeat, optimism gives us hope and the drive to push on regardless of what comes our way. No one single person on the planet is finding…
