The Monty Python crew tell us to “always look on the bright side of life”.

Positive psychology and the positive thinking movement advocate that our thoughts have a direct impact on our life.

That is to say, the way we look at a situation affects the way we approach the situation, which, in turn, affects the outcome of the situation. So, if we can see the positive rather than the negative in a situation, chances are the outcome of the situation will be positive.

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Winston Churchill famously said that “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

This is borne out by research that indicates that optimists and pessimists approach problems differently and their ability to cope with adversity differs as a result.

In essence, optimists share three core characteristics: they tend not to take things personally; they tend to realise that nothing lasts forever (“this too shall pass”); and they tend to appropriately contain difficult situations, eg losing one’s job won’t overly affect their social life or self-esteem.

Pessimists, on the other hand, tend to take things personally, tend to see difficult situations as never-ending (this too will not pass) and tend to allow adversity to bleed into other areas of their lives, eg losing one’s job would affect many other areas including hobbies, friendships and self-esteem.

Studies have also found that optimism has been proven to improve the immune system, longevity, prevent chronic disease, promote social success and help people cope with unfortunate news.

Pessimism has been linked to stress, depression and anxiety. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out which camp you’d prefer to belong to.

So is optimism something that we’re born with or is it something that we can learn? Martin Seligman, father of positive psychology, developed a curriculum for school children that inculcated them in an optimistic explanatory style. Children were taught to challenge thought processes that were pessimistic.

The results tend to show that optimism can indeed be trained, fostered and learned. However, old habits die hard.

Children are more flexible in their thinking styles than adults, who may be deploying a pessimistic thinking style for many decades. The saying goes: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Or perhaps that’s a bit pessimistic. The optimistic view would be: “It’s never too late.”

I certainly think that, young or old, it’s no harm to challenge pessimism in ourselves and others. It reminds me of the perfect challenge I read in Julia Cameron’s book The Artists Way. The pessimist was arguing about the futility of taking up piano lessons in later life.

“Do you have any idea how old I’d be by the time I’d be able to play?” they asked.

“Same age you’d be if you didn’t,” came the reply.