Excellent News. I Might Live An Extra Eight Years

I was listening to Radio 4 in the car this morning when I caught a few minutes of In Pursuit Of Happiness in which Claudia Hammond explored the government's plans to measure the nation's levels of happiness. It seems that scientists have found a definite link between optimism and longevity and the expert on the programme concluded that, on average, optimists live eight years longer. This can be nothing but good news for me. 


Just look at my eBay and Twitter id . Who but an optimist could think up"lfcchampions", a name that I came up with over eleven years ago and have stuck with through thick and thin? There's even more of the optimist in that last sentence as my son would say through "thin and thin". And both my kids will vouch for my ability to spot the only patch of blue sky in an ink black landscape and declare that "it's going to clear up" despite them being in the tenth day stranded in a Yorkshire Dales' caravan in monsoon conditions. Many has been the time when I've declared to all who would listen that "we can still win this" despite the odds and the clock suggesting otherwise and once or twice my optimism has been well founded - remember Istanbul.


I'm heartened to hear that I stand a chance of living for eight years longer than the pessimists amongst us but wonder if it is their pessimism that is condemning them to an early grave or do they simply give up the will to live listening to constant quotes from our perky handbook of catch phrases - "cheer up", "it's only a scratch", "we can always get another one", "the next horse is a certainty" to name but a few. Maybe we optimists are to blame for the suffering and early deaths that our pessimist friends and colleagues endure in the knowledge that in reality we aren't going to win, it's definitely broken and there's no chance that we can get there in time. If so. I'm really, really sorry pessimists but never mind, just think, if there's a heaven, you'll get there before us.


Tomorrow I'll be blogging another of my occasional business advice tips. It will have the catchy headline "Small Business Advice Part Four - The Vital Importance Of Your Balance Sheet" If you run a small business or are thinking of doing so please check it out you might benefit from it.


Until then. I'll leave you with the optimist's anthem.