Over optimism Does Harm

Liu Zhiyu

【Abstract】Being optimistic can help us get through the plight. Parents often tell their children to be optimistic. There are also many examples to prove that optimists achieve their goal. However， over？鄄optimism does nothing but harm to us. This passage mainly argues about why we need to be optimistic， the influence of over？鄄optimism and what we should do.

【Keywords】over？鄄optimism； harm； double？鄄edged sword； optimism

【中圖分類號】G78 【文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識碼】A 【文章編號】2095-3089（2019）12-0087-01

We now live in a society where everyone wants to win， but it is not easy to achieve that goal. How？ Your parents may tell you： “Dont worry， dear. Remember that Where there is a will， there is a way.” The idiom can also be translated as “Nothing is impossible to a willing mind.” That is one of the aspects of optimism， which is now admired by the majority of our society.

There is no doubt that we can benefit a lot from holding an optimistic attitude. A frustrated man can overcome disappointing situation by viewing his situation from an optimistic point. We have all heard the story of The Last Leaf that the girl finally regained hope and was cured. If she had been pessimistic， she would have died. The power of optimism is also strong in reality. Helen Keller， Stephen Hawking and many famous disabled people like them all have strong and optimistic hearts， which helped them get out of adversity and become successful in specific fields. Thats why we all admire optimism. Optimism is regarded as a kind of panacea. It seems that we can overcome all the barriers on our way to success as long as we are optimistic.

Can an ambitious and optimistic man really gain everything that he wants？ I dont think so. Being optimistic is a double？鄄edged sword. We may easily fall into a wrong path of over？鄄optimism if we cant reach a certain degree. From my perspective， over？鄄optimismdoes nothing but harm to us.

Being over？鄄optimistic is not good for our personal development. People will be overconfident about their ability. For students， sometimes they may have a same feeling that they can do well， even achieve the highest goal， in the test tomorrow. Unfortunately， the result usually cant reach their expectation. As a student， I also experienced such “nightmare”. The reason for the bad performance is that they overestimate themselves so that they may not pay much attention on preparing the test. For graduates， over？鄄optimism also hurt them. According to a recent psychological research， many of the graduates who were over optimistic about their future careers before graduation dont have as much salary as those who have an awareness of hardship. Their future careers are also less stable.

In addition， being over？鄄optimistic can make us underestimate potential risks and ignore consequences. Investment is an efficient way to earn money. However， some investors just think about high income but ignore the potential risks. There are many examples in our daily life that investors go bankrupt because they underestimated risks. Whats more， it is even more serious on the social and national level. As an old saying goes， “One false step will make a great difference.” A wrong decision made by the national leadership will bring disasters to ordinary citizens. The Great Depression in the 1930s was caused by President Hoovers laissez？鄄faire economy. Early in his tenure， he boasted that the economic system of the United States was“perfect” enough to totally overcome poverty. American citizens also blindly believed that they were living in a prosperous society. Actually， the “prosperity” was only an illusory， fragile dream. China also suffered from such consequence. The Great Leap proposed by the former government didnt bring any “l(fā)eap” in agriculture and industry， but only led to three years of famine. In a word， over？鄄optimismis fatal to decision making.

However， it doesnt mean that we should totally avoid being optimistic. We should try our best to minimize the losses. For governments， it is of great necessity to ensure that there are voices of doubt and opposition and can be known by decision？鄄makers to avoid the excessive expansion of power system. Without doubt and opposition， citizens may blindly believe everything the authorities declare. Personality cult will lead to over？鄄optimism， for example， the Great Purge in Soviet Union which caused losses of elites. Another important way to reduce the effect of over？鄄optimism is that decision？鄄makers should learn from other peoples experience， especially learn from failure. Authorities should take full account of our national conditions when making decisions as well as have an accurate understanding of the domestic environment. For ordinary citizens， factors that we should consider to avoid being overly optimistic is similar to those at the national level. We should listen to the opposite voices of others， such as our parents well？鄄meaning critics. It will remind us of some aspects we didnt consider before we decide to do something. The most important solution is that we need to put ourselves on an accurate position. Overestimating and underestimating ourselves will always lead to unexpected bad results. Only by fully understanding ourselves along with lessons from others can we avoid being overly optimistic to the greatest extent.

All in all， optimism is a double？鄄edged sword and over？鄄optimism do harm to decision？鄄making. We should achieve a balance between overestimation and underestimation. By doing so， we can really benefit from being optimistic and feel confident about ourselves.

作者簡介：

劉芝鈺（1999年3月-），女，江蘇蘇州人，本科在讀，蘇州大學(xué)英語師范專業(yè)。