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It's the UN's International Happiness Day, which is designed to spread love and joy and all that jazz around the world. Which is lovely - in theory. After all, research shows having a sunny outlook attracts more friends and means more opportunities are likely to come your way, having the knock-on effect of fattening your wallet.

In fact, optimists generally get all the luck. ('Which is just typical,' mutters my inner pessimist.) They live longer, achieve more and are healthier. So surely a day devoted to all things smiley is a good thing? Well of course it is - unless, like me, you're a natural-born pessimist.

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Those of us whose frowns are destined not to be turned upside-down under any circumstances (exceptions include being handed a big slice of cake, a puppy, or a puppy perched on a slice of cake) can find it a bit hard to be reminded that other people breeze their way through life with a big grin, made even wider thanks to the larger pay-packets and better health of the happy.

The one thing that will help me through the day is the firm belief that being a pessimist is actually good for you. When you're convinced a job interview is only going to end in tears, you tend to project an aura of laid-back calm which makes you appear totally in control. First-date nerves evaporate if you concentrate on the months of relationship-based trauma (probably) stretching out ahead of you if things go well. Which they won't.

And expecting the worst means you're totally prepared for anything – I'm the Cosmo office's go-to gal for everything from plasters to safety pins to a portable phone charger with five different attachments. You know, just in case.

Tending to be fairly highly strung when small things go wrong ("WHY OH WHY IS PRET OUT OF BACON BAGUETTES? WAHHHHH!") people are often amazed when the bigger things don't phase me. When I recently stood up in a pub, sending the iPhone perched on my lap crashing to the floor with a screen-shattering tinkle, my friends held their collective breaths.

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They expected me to rend my garments and howl to an unjust God. Instead, I looked at the screen, now neatly divided into 5,000 tiny pieces, muttered 'Bugger,' and put it in my pocket. Because while I can't do anything about Pret running out of bacon baguettes (WHY, PRET, WHY??), I already had a contingency plan for a shattered phone screen. (Even if that plan involved Dodgy Dave's Screen Fixing Emporium.) Dib dib dib.

Studies have also found that pessimists are more likely to lose weight (we know ditching the doughnuts is going to be awful before we even start, which helps us stick to it), have a heightened sense of danger (handy when confronting bears) and deal with stress better.

Okay, so optimists get all the jobs, money, robust good health AND a special day devoted to spreading their innate cheer. But when things go wrong exactly the way we pessimists predicted, we're, like, totally breezy about it. Which is something to smile about. Right?

Follow Rosie on Twitter @Mullies

Rosie Mullender Content Director I’m the gonk-collecting, cheese-nibbling, novel-writing, burrito-blogging, mag-reading, Twitter-loving, gym-going, gin-drinking, pasta-making, puppy-stalking, man-chasing, fast-knitting, fruit-and-veg-shunning Features Editor of Cosmo.

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