Optimism

Today I read an article I've been saving for about a week; The Optimism Bias. While it points out that things have gotten significantly more difficult over the past number of years, the article also states that as a populace, our optimism has not wavered. We tend to expect that things will turn out better than they do, we're optimistic rather than realistic. At times this can be dangerous, for example skipping regular health checkups, but it also helps to promote progress. To make progress we have to be able to imagine better realities and believe we can achieve them.

Personally I think that's great! Why not go for your dream job, save for an exotic vacation and work towards getting what you have always wanted. I think that if we were realistic all of the time life would be boring. While failing can be rough, I always have a harder time dealing with regret than failure.