Could you be more optimistic than you are?

This blog is based on the Ipsos Predictions Survey 2025, it was a 33-country study which looks at people’s expectations and predictions for the year ahead.

Overall, in the 33-countries surveyed, a majority of people (71%) believe that 2025 will be a better year than 2024. According to Ipsos, optimism levels have fluctuated between 75% to 80% over the past decade.

To gather these results, Ipsos interviewed 23,721 adults. Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement: ‘I am optimistic that 2025 will be a better year for me than it was in 2024.’ As I am a North American, I’ll give these examples for comparison;

• Canada – 71% optimistic – 29% not
• United States – 70% optimistic – 30% not
• Indonesia – 90% optimistic – 10% not

From digging deeper into the research, I found out that 90% of Indonesians believe their physical health will improve this year while 92% thinking their mental health will. I found this very interesting for a few reasons;

• Physical health is how well your organs and body systems function. In other words, by taking care of your physical health, you feel better.
• Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. Why wouldn’t you want to do this?

I like what Karol Ward, LCSW, a licensed psychotherapist said; “From my experience, optimism is both a personality trait and a product of our environment,”. “From an early age, babies and children pick up the emotional vibes in their homes. If the atmosphere is relaxed and loving, children blossom even if they innately have a tendency towards anxiety. But if the home environment is tense and filled with dysfunction, optimism is one of the first things to go. It’s hard to be emotionally open and hopeful when that is not being modeled for you by your caretakers.”

According to a King’s College (England) study it shows that optimism is about 25 percent is hereditary, and then there are other factors that affect our positivity — like socioeconomic (concerned with the interaction of social and economic factors status) — that are often out of our control. Yet that still leaves a solid amount of wiggle room for us to develop a more optimistic outlook as adults. So, if you’re someone who tends to see the negative in a given situation, there’s hope.

To become more optimistic, I would suggest;

• Keep a blessings journal – which means writing down all the situations and people that came into your life (good and bad). Yes, good can come out of a bad experience.
• Find the good in challenging situations – thrive on the challenges as they will push you to become a better and stronger person.
• Limit your consumption of the news – I don’t know of a news program that shows optimistic aspects of life.
• Spend time with optimistic people – their glimmer of hope can help light your hopefulness.
• Do activities that provide for others enjoyment – contribution is one of the greatest ways to bring your own spirit up.
• Acknowledge things can be beyond your control – last time I checked, we didn’t create ourselves, so why do you think that all must be under your control?
• Practice self-care – step back from activities that drain you, and find the joy in the little things.
• Minimize negative predictions – quit deciding in advance that a particular activity or person won’t be good.
• Start small – my late friend Andy Sherwood always said; “Inch by inch life is a synch, yard by yard life is hard.”
• Change the conversation – is you are part of a conversation that is bringing you down, change the topic or create some humor about the discussion.

In other words, we all have to be a little more resilient in all of our thoughts, words and deeds.

A question to conclude; what is one of the suggestions that you can take action on today?