The first thing to learn in becoming an optimist is how to dispute, or disagree with, your pessimistic thoughts. Identifying them is not that difficult - it's the voice in your head (that may sound strangely familiar if you think about it - like a parent or other authority figure from your childhood) telling you that you are going to mess something up.

For example, let's say you are preparing for a big presentation at work and you realize you are missing an important piece of data. If you are generally an optimist, your "knee jerk" or automatic reaction may be something like, "Oh! I'm going to have to call Jim first thing in the morning and get the correct data!".

On the other hand, if you are a pessimist, your automatic reaction will probably be more like, "Well, that's it. I'm never going to get this done in time now and even if I do put something together it is going to be wrong."

Sound familiar? Click below to learn how to dispute that thought.