When it comes to your life, which one do you tend to relate to? Human nature shows that we tend to be more pessimistic if things are not going according to plan. How many average people are there in the world and how many extraordinary people are there in the world? You can probably answer that question yourself. So which one do you want to be? If you are reading this, then I am going to assume that you want to strive for the latter.

Now there is a very important thing to recognize when you are striving to be extraordinary. You have to be YOUR extraordinary and not someone else’s. If you are focusing too much to be like someone else are you really putting in your best effort to be the best that YOU can be? Once you recognize that, you let go of that limitation and move forward with your life and what YOU are capable of doing. When that happens, you tend to look at things from a more optimistic approach. People who focus on others have a self imposed limitation and will ultimately breed pessimism within themselves. Now I am not saying that you don’t have role models, I am saying that you use those role models to learn from. Don’t try to be exactly like the person you look up to, but be the person you can create. If your name is John, don’t try to be like Jack, be like John. Learn from Jack, but use the things you have learned from him and become the best John you thought possible.

There is too much pessimism in the world and a direct by product of that is an abundance of average people. I’m not saying that being average is bad either, not everyone wants to be extraordinary, but if you do, you better be willing to put yourself through some hell and be happy about it. This is one thing that the great people you read about do better than anyone else. They know how to be optimistic in situations where the world says they should be unhappy. Know how to take your losses and turn them into something and don’t just dwell on them. You need to love your good days twice as much as you hate your bad days.

My hope is that if you read this, you may have a different perspective on how striving for an ultimate belief in optimism will do 10 times more than any form of pessimism will. You will have bad days, that is a guarantee and there is no escaping it, but how will you react to it? Those small decisions are what helps the extraordinary people cross the veil from being someone they really don’t want to be. Pessimism is easy, optimism is hard. The easier you make it to be optimistic, the greater “John” you become. Go out and be the best person you can possibly be, whatever that looks like you for you, go do it. You are only doing a disservice to yourself if you don’t.