If you wake up every morning thinking that you will die a horrible death in a car accident, and you accept it as truth, you’re going to go to sleep being the happiest person on earth, every night. That is the power of pessimism. One needs to accept the worst possible outcome of every situation, and be prepared for it. If it happens, you’re in the clear since you were expecting it. If it doesn’t, then great, it turned out better than you expected.

To make an example, that might hit closer to home than the car accident , let’s think of an everyday event like losing your keys. This can be an extremely frustrating event and you will most likely become extensively furious. If you were a pessimist, you would likely have expected yourself to lose your keys in the near future, and come up with an alternative for the key in advance. Even if you did not come up with a solution in advance your feelings are still drastically changed; you’re no longer as angry about the loss, since your expectations were not broken, and you will not feel as much sadness, because this is exactly how you pictured what your day would be like. On the other hand, if you did indeed not lose the key you will find yourself pleased that your expectations were exceeded.About the same loss of keys a positivist might become extremely furious, as he or she was likely expecting to not lose their keys at all. This anger may get taken out on their spouse, their boss or their kids, all of which, needless to say, are highly undesirable.