So there’s half a glass of water in front of you. Is it half full or half empty? I hope it’s the former because believe it or not, researchers have found that optimism is a universal phenomenon that can promote many benefits to a person’s life. Yep.

According to a study conducted by the University of Kansas, researchers found in the Gallup World Poll from 142 countries that despite difficult times, most people are optimistic and see a brighter outlook to their future. They also discovered that between these countries, it didn’t matter how much income one was earning as optimism prevailed in most of these people’s mind.

Now the good news is this positive outlook has a greater impact on a person’s life. Many scientists have discovered that optimists just have it better than others. From living longer to decreased heart disease to finding it easier to handle stress, here’s five cool benefits of being an optimist you need to know:

1. Optimism reduces stress

The power of positive thinking has proven to keep a person less stressed in tough situations. Why? Well think of it this way, you’re stuck in something tough – but the optimistic you knows there’s always a way to make it better. Unlike a pessimist, people with this positive trait have put their mindset that “everything will eventually get better”, therefore they automatically become less stressed because they know for every difficult times there’s always a solution to it. Simple!

2. Optimism increases lifespan

You don’t need to drink the fountain of youth to live forever. Science has proven that optimistic people have proven to live a longer life. According to a study from the University of Pittsburg, they found during an eight year period of analyzing 100,000 female patients in their local hospital that patients who were optimists were less likely to die from all causes than those who were cynics. So all it takes is a mindset change and you could increase your lifespan. Marvellous!

3. Optimism decreases health risks

While most doctors would advise those with heart diseases to find ways to reduce stress, did you know optimistic people are generally better at caring for their hearts? Research from the University of Michigan as well as Harvard University discovered that optimism among people above the age of 50 significantly reduced their risk of heart failure. In contrast with the least optimistic people in the study, these positive thinkers reduced their risk of heart failure over the follow-up period by 73 percent. Yup! So if you’re prone to heart disease, my suggestion is to start joining the optimistic wagon.

4. Optimistic people have better relationships

Love and happiness are two contagious feelings that go hand in hand. Now try putting two optimistic people in a romantic relationship and you’d see that you’d rather see this union flourish than a pessimistic pairing. In fact, this theory was tested at the University of Oregon, where researchers found that even with one optimistic person in the relationship, happiness between the couple were better than to have no positive thinker at all. So if you yourself are a pessimist by nature, consider dating an optimistic person and see how that turns out for your relationship!

5. Optimism makes one more successful

Ever wonder how some people are just way more successful at getting the jobs that they want? Well, I can bet you that most of them are optimists by nature. Quite recently researchers from Duke University had monitored a group of MBA graduates who were about to enter the workforce and what they found was amazing – those who had a high outlook that they would get a job received offers than those who didn’t. They also found that because these optimists had better outlooks in their career they were more likely to earn higher starting salaries and get promoted more frequently. Pretty cool huh?

Therefore, I rest my case. The optimistic way of life has it’s amazing benefits. Now the question is, are you part of this mindset?

As always thanks for reading and until next time.

P.S. If you liked this post then you’ll like my books as well. You can get them on Amazon.