The Guardian has interviewed Professor Elaine Fox, author of the Book Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain: How to Retrain Your Brain to Overcome Pessimism and Achieve a More Positive Outlook. You can listen to the interview at the Guardian ScienceWeekly website.
The book is interesting because it takes a kind of different approach on the topic of optimism and pessimism and also looks how these general psychological tendencies can make us more prone to some of life’s problems like addictions, shyness, depression or anxiety.
The book also shares cognitive retraining exercises that you can do which have been scientifically validated to change your outlook in life.
Are you more motivated by the carrot or by the stick? And do you wish to change anything about that?
One of the main things that differentiates optimists is actually not whether or not they look at things cheerfully or always look on the bright side of life, but that they have a sense of control over their lives, whereas pessimists feel that their life is more controlled by outside forces and thus also feel more powerless.
The book is largely backed by science and the author also shares several stories that demonstrate for example that the immune system of optimists is better and that optimists live longer lives.
Professor Elaine Fox also makes an important point: optimism should be based in realism!
And then there is always our Optimism Hypnosis Download if you want to program your mind to become more optimistic 
