What is the Difference Between Optimistic and Pessimistic

The main difference between optimistic and pessimistic is that the optimistic is being always positive about things in life whereas pessimistic is always being negative about things in life.

A person can see life in two main ways: in an optimistic way or in a pessimistic way. Depending on that attitude, his/her psychological wellbeing can be easily determined. Likewise, life is always colourful and filled with hope for an optimist whereas life is evil and hopeless for a pessimist.

Key Areas Covered

1. What Does Optimistic Mean
     – Definition, Characteristics 
2. What Does Pessimistic Mean
     – Definition, Characteristics 
3. What is the Difference Between Optimistic and Pessimistic
    – Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms

Attitudes, Optimistic, Pessimistic, Personalities, Psychology

What Does Optimistic Mean

Optimistic is the adjective of the noun optimism. Optimism refers to a positive attitude, an inclination to put the favourable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome. Therefore, being optimistic means to aspire and see the outcome of every possible situation in life as positive. 

As a result, someone who is optimistic sees every opportunity in life with a positive attitude and believes these are followed by good outcomes as well. Therefore, an optimistic person faces a challenge as he/she accepts a gift in their lives.

Moreover, being optimistic about life makes a person more confident about themselves and their future. He sees hope in everything, and this makes it easier to enjoy life. They see life colourfully and filled with joy and bliss rather than mundane and dull. Being optimistic means being invincible where that particular person identifies his own space in the world confidently. Furthermore, being optimistic is a necessity for the psychological well-being of a person.

Additionally, the attitude of an optimist and pessimist is often emphasized through the image of a half-filled wine glass. An optimistic person sees it as ‘half full’ while a pessimistic person sees it as ‘half empty’. These are two contrasting views that depict in-depth insights into their outlook on life as well.

What Does Pessimistic Mean

Pessimistic is the adjective of pessimism. Pessimism is the negative attitude to aspire and emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or expectation of the worst possible outcome in everything.

As a consequence, someone who is pessimistic never sees happiness and hope in life. Accordingly, for him, /her life is very evil, dull and unhappy. Hence, in general, a pessimistic person tends to focus on the negatives of life. Similarly, they start losing confidence in themselves and what they need to accomplish in life. In brief, a pessimistic person does not like to dream of future plans as they see worst outcomes in every possible situation in life.

Moreover, pessimistic attitude is a major hindrance in social progression and development as a whole. Pessimists are often considered existential nihilists who believe that life has no distinct meaning or value.

Difference Between Optimistic and Pessimistic

Definition

Optimistic refers to the positive attitude of expecting the best possible outcome from any given situation. On the contrary, pessimistic refers to the negative attitude of expecting the worst possible outcome from any given situation.

Attitude

Optimistic is always about having a good and positive attitude about almost everything in life. Therefore he/she sees life in a more colourful way. On the contrary, pessimistic is always about having a bad or a negative attitude about life and things in life, therefore for a pessimist, life is very dull, evil and meaningless. This is the main difference between optimistic and pessimistic.

Confidence

Another difference between optimistic and pessimistic is that an optimist is always confident about own self while a pessimist does usually not have a good confidence about own self.

Challenges

An optimistic person always sees challenges in life as a blessing while pessimistic person always sees challenges in life as a burden or an evil thing. As a result, when an optimistic person embraces challenges in life, a pessimistic person always avoids challenges in life. Hence, this is a significant difference between optimistic and pessimistic person.

Obstacles

Another important difference between optimistic and pessimistic person is on how they see the obstacles. An optimistic person sees obstacles as those that make them stronger and wiser and help them to reach their destination. Thus they get more determined towards reaching his/her target in life. On the other hand, a pessimistic person sees obstacles as curses or a burden that makes them weak and helpless. Therefore, they easily get discouraged and fail in reaching their targets in life.

Future Plans and Dreams

Also, optimists have future plans and are not scared to dream since they always see hope in everything whereas pessimists are reluctant to have future plans and are scared to have dreams since they don’t see hope in anything. This is another difference between optimistic and pessimistic person.

Conclusion

Optimistic and pessimistic are two main diverging attitudes one can have on life. Hence, a pessimistic person is very hopeful and expects the best possible outcome for every possible situation in life. For a pessimistic person, it is the contrary; he/she expects the worst possible outcome in every possible situation in life. Therefore, the main difference between optimistic and pessimistic is that optimistic is always being positive about things in life whereas pessimistic is always being negative about things in life.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Optimism” by Marina del Castell (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr
2. “141366” (CC0) via Pixabay
3. “Personality Quotes optimist sees opportunity but pessimist sees calamity | optimistic quotes” By Prabakaran Thirumalai (Public Domain) via Flickr
4. “679914” (CC0) via Pixabay