Winston Churchill once quoted, "a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

How many times have you been told “always be positive in life!”, “always keep your eyes on the prize!”, or “always look on the positive side!”? 

Merriam Webster Dictionary describes optimism as “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” But does being an optimist have its downside?

Pessimism is defined by the American Psychological Association as "the attitude that things will go wrong and that people’s wishes or aims are unlikely to be fulfilled."

A person with a pessimistic outlook tends toward a more negative—or some might say, realistic—view of life. Optimists, on the other hand, see things more positively.

Pessimists usually look forward to seeing negative outcomes and are suspicious when things seem to be going well or smoothly. While optimists expect good things to happen and look for the silver lining when life doesn't go their way.

When does pessimism become an advantage?

Optimism helps us to live positively and it teaches us to move forward and expect that things are going to get better each day.

During this pandemic, people who are optimistic that the world will change and change for the better are utterly important. However, pessimism enters the narrative when people start to believe that the crises brought by the COVID-19 has the potential to kill thousands of lives, or that it will take more than a year for the coronavirus pandemic to cease. Pessimism is not always thinking negatively, it’s more of seeing things realistically, it’s more of expecting the worst, so they wouldn’t get disappointed by the outcome. As what was written In an article written by Fuschia Sirois, “pessimism isn’t always about negative thinking.” Personality science has revealed it also includes a focus on outcomes – that is what you expect will happen in the future. While optimists expect positive outcomes will happen more often than not, pessimists expect negative outcomes are more likely.

What is defensive pessimism?

Julie K. Norem in her book Defensive Pessimism, Anxiety, and the Complexity of Evaluating Self-Regulation, defines defensive pessimism as "a motivated cognitive strategy that helps people manage their anxiety and pursue their goals.” Norem also claims that “individuals who use defensive pessimism set low expectations, and play through extensive mental simulations of possible outcomes as they prepare for goal-relevant tasks and situations.”

Defensive pessimism is setting low expectations for the outcome of a particular plan or situation – like expecting that you won’t pass your examination— and then envisioning the details of everything that might possibly go wrong to make these worst-case scenarios a reality. This would allow the defensive pessimist to come up a plan of to ensure that any imagined mishaps won’t happen in reality – such as reviewing for the test, getting enough sleep, and arriving early.

Winston Churchill said, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." True, but a pessimist also acknowledges the difficulty in every difficulty, making them ahead of their game.