Pesimism: a self-fulfiling prophecy

"Have We not opened your breast for you? And removed from you your burden. Which weighed down your back? And have We not raised high your fame?

Verily, along with every hardship is relief.

Verily, along with every hardship is relief."

(Quran, Al Insyirah 1-5)

Today is Friday. Yup, Jumat, or Jemowah, as we Javanese sometimes called it.. because we have our Jumat Prayer today. On Fridays. It's Arabic... you know... it is...

And today, the speech on the Jumat prayer at our uni was about optimism, as opposed to pesimism and despair. But before i talk about pesimism, i want to share some funny illustration that the khotib explained this afternoon:

"It has been scientifically proven that one year after somebody had a car accident, their level of happiness will be restored to a normal level just like everyone else. And the same thing applies to a person who won a lottery, he/she will be happy for a short time, and after a year, their happiness will reduce to a level just like before.

But if one must choose between those, who would answer "Uhm... that doesn't really matter, because either way, we will get happy anyway at the end..."?"

As i look to myself, what the khotib said when he was delivering his speech, was like a strong reminder of what i have done wrong all this time. I was too pesimistic. The khotib said, "Pesimism is a self-fulfiling prophecy. In many times, what they are pesimistic about will become reality..."

At least there were two friends who told me that I should not be too pesimistic.

The first person to tell me that was my boss at Woolworths, Priyani. One day, she passed by while I was packing some dessert, and said to me, "Astria...so .. how's it going?" (ehmm... my first name is Astria, so that's how they call me)

"Well... i don't know... (just see for yourself is what i meant actually :p)," i replied.

"Oh come on, boy. Don't be too pesimistic." She tried to calm me :p

The second person, among those who reminded me that I'm a pesimistic guy was Aya'. I told her that I regret doing the research topic i'm working on now. Boy, it's hard! Not to mention, it's mostly boring as well. Aya', instead of using the word "pesimistic", said that psychologically, whether it is under my consciousness or not, i am killing the spirit and motivation that i need to get this thesis done. Some cool definition for 'pesimism', don't you think? :p (jangan GR ya, Aya'... if you can read this hehe)

On the other hand, optimism is one obvious characteristics of the true believers, as the khotib today mentioned. For with every burden, there is a relief... as mentioned in the Quran i quoted at the beginning...