Imagine you’re preparing for a huge exam tomorrow. You’ve studied all night and you’re absolutely sure that you know everything, but there’s still that lingering fear that you will bomb the test. You shove the doubt aside as you walk through the classroom door, and end up acing the exam. Now imagine you still studied all night, but you held on to your fear. Statistically, you would likely fail the exam, according to “Mayo Clinic.”
Having a positive outlook on life contributes to success more than people realize. From something as simple as being likeable to something serious like your first job, having an optimistic personality can work wonders. Having a more positive outlook on situations will leave you better off when they’re over, continued “Mayo Clinic.”  
Loy Norrix psychology teacher Rebecca Layton agrees with this philosophy.
“I’m not cheerleader happy and preppy, but I do think if you believe everything’s going to fail, and you have that negative energy that you put out there, you’re not going to have success.” Layton continued, “The studies will tell you over and over again that having at least a positive attitude towards things will end up more successful.”
Being optimistic also comes with health benefits, continued by Mayo Clinic. Having a more positive disposition ensures better cardiovascular health, increased life span, better resistance to illness and increased emotional stability during hardships and setbacks. People who believe that nothing they do will end in triumph, whether purposely pessimistic or not, will generally take away their best effort and fail just as they predicted. However, it is possible to train yourself to be more optimistic.
“I think you can train yourself to have small victories. You can train yourself to start looking for one good thing, whatever that one good thing is, which may not make you overly positive,” said Layton, “But at least if you get into the habit of doing it, it becomes easier to find the good things that happen during your day or that are happening in your life overall.”
There are ways to identify negative thinking so you can change to a more positive mindset. Usually, after a long day, we focus on how much our back hurts or how much homework we have to do. That type of thinking leads to procrastination and falling grades. Instead, if we focused on the fact that our friends complimented our outfit or we have a cool game to come home to and play, it will be a lot easier to make it through the day.
Being forced to be happy and optimistic is not the best way to achieve success, but if you start to appreciate the little things, life could turn out better than you would think.