The karma of a pessimist

By Alvin J. Alexander, devdaily.com

In a lot of ways I don't understand people that have the "glass half-empty" view of the world. I don't allow much room for pessimists in my life. Here's an example of what happens to a pessimist.

Me	Pessimist
How was your hotel room last night?	(Paraphrasing) Too loud, too cold, the bed was too hard.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that.	Well, what can you do?

How was your breakfast? That stack of pancakes looked enormous.	The coffee was cold, I make better pancakes than that.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that.	Well, what can you do?

(Thinking to myself, I know what I can do, I'm not going to ask any more "How was..." questions.)

Would you like to go drive up the side of this beautiful mountain? Only a few thousand people every summer actually get to see it.	No, it will probably be too bumpy.

Would you like to walk to see this glacier? It's incredibly beautiful, and just a half-mile walk in each direction.	No, I'm too tired.

(Later that evening, after a long day of listening to complaints.)	Can we go do XYZ?
Gosh, I'd love to, but I'm really tired. Maybe another time.

Beyond my "I'm really tired" response, there's also a complete lack of conversation the rest of the day. Who wants to listen to anyone complain all day?

More avoidance

The next day I try a different approach, and try to pump up the pessimist with a lot of optimistic talk about how beautiful everything is, what wonderful weather we're having, etc., but it seems to have no effect, and FWIW, takes a lot of energy on my part. So I give up.

Later that day, as we're driving past some beautiful spots just off the main road -- spots that I know are there, but the pessimist doesn't -- I just keep driving straight, not saying a word. Heck, I can see these spots next week, why would I want to take a "glass half-full" person to see those? Alaska is one of the most beautiful states in the entire world, and if you can't enjoy the outdoors here, wow, good luck to you.

The karma

According to my world view, the karma of being a pessimist is that the pessimist sets in motion a course of events where they see less in life (thereby getting less out of life), and other people avoid them (both in conversation and also future engagements), leading to a self-fulfilling destiny that a pessimist doesn't do anything, and has no friends.

My only advice is to be like the happy dog, smile and wag your tail when you greet people, and you'll be amazed how many people will pat you on the head and give you something to eat.

This doesn't apply to work, does it?

If you think this doesn't apply to people at work, think again. A long time ago a co-worker of mine had the same problem. Despite having a ton of energy and being a sharp guy, he was always a pessimist. After a short while all of his supervisors quit asking him anything, because they already knew he would tell them it couldn't be done.

In the end I did all the things that were "impossible" (and made a very healthy living), and he was let go. After that he blamed our company, and then he went from one job to another, all because of his bad attitude. Along the way nobody ever told him the truth, that his attitude was holding him back, and we just let him go, and each time he blamed the company he just left for his problems.