Studies have found that pessimists are realistic. But you don’t have to be unreal to be optimistic.
You have to see the foreground as background and the background as foreground.
The background scenery is always changing. Like a good martial arts practitioner I keep my eye on what’s happening around me but I’m focused on moving with the energy of my opponent and bringing it to a different place.
In the background is the potential for meaning that the foreground holds. The possibilities I envision are ‘background’ in relation to what’s happening now; they are ‘foreground’ in my imagination.
Background becomes foreground only if I first make it real in my mind. This is the secret to optimism and positive thinking.
In a Jewish orientation this is the idea of putting service in the foreground. Ha’avoda keva ve’haolam ara’i. Make your service the constant, fixed reality and the world an unstable, changeable reality. (Netivot Shalom)
In Logotherapeutic terms we pay attention to what happening in the foreground while putting our focus on the background of potential meanings, values, tasks and mission.