Half full or half empty?

Ah, sounds familiar? Many many moons ago, someone told me:

An optimist sees the glass as half full. A pessimist, half empty.

I supposed the idea was to encourage people to see opportunities rather crisis in everything. Some kind of feel-good and upbeat pep-talk in the dark times.

However, by the 'loose' definition above, I must be a pessimist. I tend to see faults, short-comings, gaps in almost everything. When I fail to finish a climb, I see it as I am not strong enough, my sequences are wrong, my endurance needs more work. See? Deficiencies, mistakes, imperfections.

But does that stop me from improving? The answer is definitely NO!

To me, being aware of my faults and gaps makes me want to improve. It spurs me to work harder, to fill the gaps and bridge the difference. So what's so bad or wrong to see a 'half-empty' glass?

I believe the current state of the glass don't mean shit. Rather, it is what do I want the glass to be in the next 10 minutes, 10 hours or 10 days that matters.

Realising it is not my desired state is more important and I would want to change that. To the best of my abilities, of course.

Whether you are a pessimist or an optimist isn't defined by what you see. It's what you do after seeing that counts.