Do you know what a reverse pessimist is?
I first heard the phrase “reverse pessimist” over 15 years ago when I first became interested in personal development.
As far as I know the phrase was first coined by W Clement Stone.
W Clement Stone was a self made multi-millionaire.
He was born in 1902 and his father passed away when he was three years of age.
He started his first business at the tender age of six selling newspapers, and by the time he was 13 he owned his own newspaper stand.
At the age of 16 he was making over $100 a week, and to put that into perspective, today’s equivalent of that would be $1023.
Stone didn’t have much of a formal education, having dropped out of high school to concentrate on selling injury insurance.
In 1919 W Clement Stone stone founded the Combined Insurance Company of America, by 1930 he had over 1000 agents selling insurance for him all across the United States.
In his autobiography “The Success System That Never Fails” he first mentions the phrase reverse pessimist.
Stone states that he is a reverse pessimist because he assumes that every person that he met in his life was put here on earth to help him to become more successful.
I don’t know about you, but personally I think that is a fantastic way to go through life.
What difference do you think that it would make to your life if you thought that everyone that you met was placed on earth to help you to be more successful?
After reading Stones autobiography I decide to experiment with the concept of being a reverse pessimist.
I can truthfully say that it has enabled me to put a positive spin on some pretty traumatic experiences, after all, it’s not what happens to you that matters it’s how you deal with what happens to you that really matters.
Being a reverse pessimist has allowed me to see things from different perspectives that I would usually wouldn’t have
It has also allowed me to constantly see the good in people, even when they do things that I personally do not agree with.
Some might say that it’s looking at life through rose coloured spectacles and maybe they would be right.
Personally I think that the world could do with a splash of colour here and there and if it has to come from my rose coloured spectacles, then so be it.
That is the reason that I am proud to be a reverse pessimist and why I believe that you should be too.
