People who are optimistic tend to view bad events as temporary, specific and external. They tend to view good events as lasting, general and personal. Pessimists do just the opposite. They view bad events as permanent, global and personal and they view good events as temporary, specific and impersonal. When the ultimate pessimist and the ultimate optimist get together, the pessimist sees the optimist as an irresponsible jerk. What is the optimist’s view of the pessimist? He may not have any view at all because he is not influenced by the negativity of outside sources. If he does form an opinion, he’ll likely see the pessimist as an unmotivated loser.

This is important because extreme pessimism is an indicator for depression. Being aware of, and if necessary changing your explanatory style is an important factor in mental health. Of course it can go too far, and it is pessimism is sometimes necessary. If Captain Sullenberger thought he could get his airplane back to the airport instead of plunging it into the Hudson, the outcome would have been quite different.

Your explanatory style is something you have been practicing for years, and one the consequences of this is that over time you believe what you’re saying! This is the principal behind affirmations but with added horsepower. The things you tell yourself you also tell others, so there is constant reinforcement and an illusion of evidence to support what you’re saying. Notice I said illusion of evidence because in order to believe some of the things we say, we distort reality. It’s a matter of whether we distort it in our favor or not.

So if you’re telling yourself that “bad things always happen to you” then to believe that you must delete a whole lot of evidence to the contrary. Now this belief becomes more deeply rooted and your behavior as a result will create more bad events thereby creating more evidence. The only way out is to dispute these irrational thoughts and come up with evidence to support the opposite.

(You can use your new explanatory style to redefine your past. If you tend to ruminate on some past event or events, it’s likely that you’re telling yourself that it was your fault and that because of that, everything that cascaded from that event could have been prevented, “if only…” Hogwash! If those thoughts return, visit them with an inquisitive mind. Challenge their validity and find evidence to support the view that it was not your fault, that it was indeed the fault of something outside of you. Then look at it as an isolated event. It may appear that because of X, Y happened, but probably isn’t something you can prove – so why bother?)