Today, I've been thinking about Attitudes & Struggles and how to help pessimists gain more enjoyment in life and more peace of mind. My thoughts have been laced with optimism, or, at least the optimism known to someone who has been spared some of the challenges faced by pessimists. Despite my natural pessimism (and despite much evidence to the contrary) I believe most people can change for the better. While I do not see the silver lining in every cloud, I do believe people who do the right things do find clouds with silver linings. My optimism in this area is bounded by realism...(or, at least, that’s how it seems). 

I find myself repeatedly telling people things like:

You can change for the better.

• Problems are a fact of life so we are better off facing them with all the positive attitude we can muster.
• Some problems contain opportunities and those opportunities are never seen by people who observe with victim's glasses.
• When you get knocked down, as you will throughout life, you must get back up, shake it off and press on with constructive action.
• Without problems we would have no chance to gain self-confidence let alone courage.

Yet, it seems some people are such entrenched victims. Some people's victim-attitudes are so ingrained they cannot imagine/envision achievement or success. Their perceptions are caged in never-ending, unfair confines.

When victim-thinking becomes your state of mind:

• Escape is impossible. 
• Struggle is now. 
• Failure is the future. 

We all know people who live lives filled with vicious cycles of struggle and negative-attitude. 

The question is - How can we help these people?

The answer contains many steps. 

The first step is – 

We must believe pessimistic people aren’t doomed to experience 'tough lives'.

Even when people show us over and over and over again they are unable to change for the better we must believe their thinking is temporary.