COMMENTARY

Having a positive attitude is so important for young people

by Erin Jackson

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

I know that it is sometimes hard to have a positive attitude especially when it seems that the world is against you, but when you think the best will happen or hope for the best much of the time it does happen.

Having a positive attitude does not only mean displaying a grin when on the inside you feel as if you might implode, it means that you have to try to change the way you see things and feel about life in general.

I know that it is not the easiest thing to just wake up one morning and decide that everything is great and you are not going to let anything get you down.

We are humans, we have feelings, we are not plastic dolls made with a permanent smile and no emotions.

Everything that happens to us, whether we are involved directly or indirectly, effects us, and the way it affects us and our reaction depends on whether it is positive or negative.

A way to get out of having a negative attitude is to change the people you hang out with.

If you hang out with a bunch of people who only sit around and complain about life or about how much their life “sucks,” then you will forever have that outlook on life.

Something to notice with these people who only sit around and complain is that all they do is just that, they never do anything to change what they complain about.

I guess they believe if they complain enough some higher power will all of a sudden descend and make everything be right again.

But I know from many years of being a pessimist that that is not going to happen, if you want something to change then you have to be the one to do something about it.

For me having a negative attitude towards things was a “safe” attitude to have.

For one thing I never got my hopes up for anything and I never really expected much from anyone or anything, therefore I never had to suffer from the awful result of disappointment.

But I know now that having a negative attitude towards life usually has negative results and not expecting much from anyone usually involved myself, so I never really lived up to my standards in anything.

I just thought that if I never got my hopes up about anything then I would never be disappointed.

But that was just what I told myself to try and make it true, in actual fact I did get disappointed, as hard as I tried not to care, I actually did.

So, I was wearing myself down trying to put up this “I don’t care about anything,” façade when in actual fact I was deeply affected by everything and having a negative attitude meant dealing with negative results, which made everything even harder.

Over the past few years I have tried to change the way I look at life and I have noticed that, most of the time, I have gained positive results.

I have also learned to live with the disappointment, which I once so feared, accepting it as part of life, and knowing that everything is not going to go as I plan.

I think it is important for young people to have a positive attitude towards life, one because they are too young to complain about life, and two because most of the time they will gain positive results which will actually make them feel better about themselves.

I am not trying to make it seem as if life will be a great dream once you change your attitude, this is life and happiness is not guaranteed, but we should also keep in mind that life is short and you should try to make the best of it while you still can.

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