Claudian's Corner

I believe all of us have uttered and were told these words.  It is not a wonder that sometimes, we lose faith and courage to do things we’ve never done before. It’s another way of saying. “we’re afraid of taking risks”. But, have anyone told us that seizing new things isn’t risking at all? If we are to ask the aged, the things they regret the most are not those they have done, but those they haven’t.

Our human instinct is rested upon our experiences aside from those we read from books, saw from the environment and learned from our parents and school. It is on these things that we are sculpted into either pessimistic or optimistic individuals.

Oftentimes. The pessimists are the outspoken. They don’t run out of reasons why a thing cannot be done, and they have this “gift of persuasion”, too. Once they speak, we are instantly trapped inside their reasons and can’t find any more reasons why we should not agree with them. This is perhaps the reason why the elderly advice their young ones not to attach to these kind of people.

But how can we distinguish a negativist and a positivist? There are times when the pessimist shows affirmative stance while the optimist show the contrary. It is normal, though. For a human being who has wisdom and understanding as well as doubts and fears, his viewpoints consistently vary. The only distinction is the prevalence of his negative or affirmative outlook. The often he think skeptically, the nearer he is to pessimism. The harder the things will then appear to him, and the more apprehensive he’ll become. If he could, for a moment, think positively, the positive thought will just remain a thought until there’s no more muscle left in him in carry out his thought. Nonetheless, he still obtains courage to risk. That is after he had seen one or two passing through the risk successfully. If he hasn’t seen any, he won’t dare try.

Just like the rest, we always get the courage when triggered; and so with the pessimists. However, excellence and progress for these people are too unfeasible a goal. They may have out even bother to dream of achievements at all. Their life is the simplest and safest among all human beings, yet so full of doubts, worries, and most of all, regrets. Tersely speaking, theirs is the dullest and most miserable life is a perpetual quest for happiness. We always search for fun; follow the trend; try new things; and think positively. We always regard new things as new challenges worth dealing with, and are afraid to face risk, or are we?

Here come the doubts, the fears, and the you-go-first-and-i-will-follow syndrome. This case scenario later on leads to melodramatic confessions of: “I am nobody”, “I am only human”, “I’m still young”, “I’m not good enough”, and “I can’t do it”; and who’s there to fuel up our courage? Nobody. Because the moment we are preoccupied with negative things, we do not take heed to encouragements anymore. The only thing we want to do is sob on our self-injected limitations. Forgetting that there is God to support us. We think our own hands made our own successes and so we are afraid to take another risk. We cling tour human instinct and we feel very weak.

Yes! We cling to our own instincts and we feel weak, but why? Maybe because our self-esteem is insufficient, or we’re just really sheer cowards. It could also be because we lack determination. Well, humans never go out of reasons. But, there is one definite reason for this: the lord directs our steps, how then can we understand our own way? Pessimism is a product of our unfaithfulness to God. It is the fruit of our ignorance to His words. However how hard we try to fight against it, if we won’t give up our trust to him, we can never overcome it.