“I think an optimist believes tomorrow can be better than today—and they take an active role in making it so,” wrote Tony Safoian, tech CEO.
Optimism, or the act of being hopeful or confident about the future, can benefit your work, your home life, and your longevity. Optimism is linked to better health, improved immunity, longer life, and greater success in relationships and work, explains Dr. Sue Varma, a psychiatrist, and author of Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being.
A Harvard Medical School study revealed that an optimist’s mindset can help patients get better quicker and stay out of the hospital. In a study of 309 middle-aged patients getting coronary artery bypass surgery, the optimistic patients were half as likely to need rehospitalization than the pessimistic patients.
This seemed to ring true in other medical studies they did. Harvard Medical School also reported that in the 1960s, 839 people completed a psychological test for optimism versus pessimism as well as a complete medical evaluation. Thirty years later all the patients were rechecked and optimism was linked to longevity. “For every 10-point increase in pessimism on the optimism–pessimism test, the mortality rate rose 19%,” the study’s authors explained.
