This is something that I always knew, but it's not so simple. Before you can enter that feedback loop, you need to place yourself in a situation that warrants it. You need direction. No-one learned a new language by hoping really hard that they wake up fluent the next day. But if you hope that taking the first step will lead to a good outcome, and that continuing on that path will get you somewhere worth the journey, you'll get results.
>>15247>if you're already doing well it's easy to be positive. If you're not, it's impossibleManage your expectations and it'll become possible. In the beginning, I was setting the bar so low for myself that I was doing well most of the time. Once I realized I could push myself little harder, I tested how hard I could take things until I was failing more often than I was succeeding and used that to define new thresholds of success.
Assume that you are exceedingly dumb and extremely lazy. Plan according to those expectations. Soon enough, you'll earn yourself the right to suspect you're not as dumb or as lazy as you first believed. Proving others wrong can get you to feel smug, but proving yourself wrong is cathartic and adds to the momentum you've built.
>>15248 mentions a slow build-up. This is the case, but you cannot approach it from the perspective that you'll keep escalating your pace to infinity. Eventually, you'll find your limit for time and effort spent. After that, you'll find it easy to remain positive, because your track record to that point bore fruit, so the road ahead will continue to be fruitful. Feedback loops.
>>15332>>15423>>15424>rather than worrying about changing the world, change your own perception of the world so that everything is positive!I think excessive optimism can be as crippling as the opposite. Closing yourself off to negative emotions can be almost as damaging as giving in to those feelings. If you become too happy about yourself, you'll stagnate. Revenge is a life well lived, so long as you get to rub it in all your enemies' faces (why social media is so popular).
>>15338>abusive peopleGreat example of the above. You can be an optimist and assume your instinct is wrong, that these people can surprise you, that you're missing some vital piece of information that reframes the whole way you instinctively interpret these people's actions. But how far can you take that line of thinking until you go from giving someone a chance to being naive?
I got burned pretty hard in the past, trying so hard to see the good in someone my very Soul was squinting.
In short: enact systems, manage expectations, balance things out. See the glass half full but don't be too eager to share.
– Input from someone who got back on the horse, having spent longer on the ground after falling spectacularly off of it than on the horse.
