With the start of the new year, I feel a rising sense of optimism.

I get this feeling that everything I have experienced thus far is leading me to a better place; that my knowledge, my energy and my character will align to create a better version of me, and a better world to live in.

I realize at the age of 38, this is not ‘normal’. What I tend to observe in the world around me is that as people grow older they become more closed, more weathered, more beaten by life.

But for me, I have to choose optimism.

I am not for a moment denying bad things happen. There are tragedies and misfortunes every day. There is horrible injustice and cruelty in the world that we must deal yet with. Still, I believe if we let these difficulties overshadow our hearts that we end up beaten by them.

The way I see it, optimism is the choice that gives us power.

Optimism is the decision to live a better today, and work toward the hope of a better tomorrow.

Optimism offers you a chance to reinvent yourself from the inside out. This is your true power as a human. It is channeling the best of yourself into the world.

Most important of all: optimism is freedom.

You are energy, whether you realize it or not. How you think, how you feel, how you act has an indelible effect on everything and everyone.

If the world around you isn’t treating you well, there is something you can do: you can start to reverse the trend by treating it better.

Rather than see something as a problem, choose to see it as your challenge.
Rather than dwell on how you are hurt, choose to focus on how you can help.

Albert Einstein said it best: 

“The most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’.”

Your answer to that will dictate and drive the way the world treats you.

Life is often an uphill journey, but that doesn’t mean you can’t smile and relish feeling alive along the way.

For me, I have to choose optimism.

– DMS