Staying Positive in a Negative World

It's not easy staying positive when the world is such a negative place to be. The news is full of stories about rapes, robberies, beatings and murders. The rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer and those in charge make the laws which ensure wealth remains in the hands of a select few. As a youngster you're told that anyone can succeed; that as long as you work hard you can achieve whatever you want. However, those with the right connections and money can help you get into the right schools and set you up in the right jobs. The chances are you will end up stuck in a dead-end occupation like so many others out there and sometimes you wonder, what is the point?

That's the trouble - you spend so many hours of your life working and often the remuneration is nothing to write home about. It can feel like you're simply wasting the days, months and years of your life, simply working to be able to pay essential bills, such as the mortgage, utilities and food. If you're lucky, you will have some money left over to spend doing activities you enjoy, although even if you have the money, you may not have the time. There has to be more to life than work, though, and so you need to make time to do the things you enjoy, as otherwise you can end up stuck in a rut. It can also help to have people in your life whose company you enjoy and who you are able to confide in.

Keeping active, doing activities you enjoy and being with people you like can help you feel better about yourself and life in general, but let's face it; some people appear to revel in their misery. They enjoy whingeing about politicians and how everything is going wrong with the country. Some people are better able to cope with the bad things that crop up in life than others who simply want to curl up in a ball and avoid dealing with the issues that are making life difficult. It's not as if you have much control over whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, so you simply have to do the best you can with what you've got and remind yourself that nobody wants to be around someone who's negative all the time.

Well, of course, other pessimists are probably more likely to put up with you, but it's a bit depressing surrounding yourself with negative people and talking about negative topics all the time. Sometimes, it's good to just have a laugh and be silly, rather than dwelling on all the serious problems happening, whether on a global scale or something more personal. Even if you have a tendency to be negative, it is always worth trying to look on the bright side of life, rather than constantly focusing on what has gone wrong in the past and what could go wrong in the future. Life is too short and if you let negativity overwhelm you, there is a possibility you will miss out on the many opportunities that life has to offer.