The Optimism Advantage: 50 Simple Truths to Transform Your Attitudes and Actions into Results

Chapter 2. Deal with the Hand You're Dealt

"If you're too consumed with the one door in your life that closes, you'll never reach the open door."

—Tommy Lasorda

Life deals you both bad and good hands. You—and countless others—struggle with the tough times and can easily take for granted life's many blessings. As an optimist, you'll learn to play both well.

You don't need this book to tell you that life is difficult; that truth is impossible to avoid. After all, the bad hands are the ones that that tend to get your attention. Even when the worst happens to others, we often say, "But by the grace of God go I!" In short, that could have just as easily been you or me!

The late M. Scott Peck's transforming work, The Road Less Traveled, continues to sell thousands of books every year. It starts with an affirmation of the same assertion: "Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult— once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."

"The business world's most revered figures, from Bill Gates on down, almost invariably overcame overwhelming odds. They didn't surf easily to the top on a big societal wave of applause. In fact, they spent most of their pre-success years being shouted down by naysayers. Yet they persisted. It was incredibly hard, and that's ...