音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:01.40]Passage 31. Choose Optimism

[00:06.65]If you expect something to turn out badly, it probably will.

[00:12.56]Pessimism is seldom disappointed.

[00:15.41]But the same principle also works in reverse.

[00:19.13]If you expect good things to happen, they usually do!

[00:23.17]There seems to be a natural cause-and-effect relationship between optimism and success.

[00:29.30]Optimism and pessimism are both powerful forces,

[00:33.79]and each of us must choose which we want to shape our outlook and our expectations.

[00:39.91]There is enough good and bad in everyone’s life—ample sorrow and happiness,

[00:45.71]sufficient joy and pain—to find a rational basis for either optimism or pessimism.

[00:52.28]We can choose to laugh or cry, bless or curse.

[00:56.87]It’s our decision: From which perspective do we want to view life?

[01:01.79]Will we look up in hope or down in despair?

[01:05.51]I believe in the upward look.

[01:08.25]I choose to highlight the positive and slip right over the negative.

[01:13.06]I am an optimist by choice as much as by nature.

[01:17.11]Sure, I know that sorrow exists.

[01:20.61]I am in my 70s now, and I’ve lived through more than one crisis.

[01:25.32]But when all is said and done, I find that the good in life far outweighs the bad.

[01:31.89]An optimistic attitude is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.

[01:36.81]The way you look at life will determine how you feel, how you perform,

[01:41.62]and how well you will get along with other people.

[01:44.80]Conversely, negative thoughts, attitudes,and expectations feed on themselves;

[01:50.93]they become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[01:54.09]Pessimism creates a dismal place where no one wants to live.

[01:58.36]The only thing more powerful than negativism is a positive affirmation,

[02:03.72]a word of optimism and hope.

[02:05.91]One of the things I am most thankful for is the fact that

[02:10.07]I have grown up in a nation with a grand tradition of optimism.

[02:14.22]When a whole culture adopts an upward look, incredible things can be accomplished.

[02:19.59]When the world is seen as a hopeful, positive place,

[02:23.53]people are empowered to attempt and to achieve.