Optimism and Pessimism

So I was thinking about optimism, pessimism, good luck, and bad luck.

I'm not sure if I truly believe in luck or not. It's an easy thing to offhandedly talk about, but when you get down to science, luck quickly gets pushed out the door.

If asked, I'd say that I consider myself lucky. That is, good things seem to happen to me. But I can't help but wonder if there is a chicken/egg thing going on. Maybe the same amount of good things and bad things happen to me, and I just have an attitude that enjoys the good things, and can easily brush off the bad. So it's not really luck, right?

Enter optimism and pessimism. If I, in a subconscious way, believe that good things are going to happen, will they? Probably not. But will I be more likely to dismiss bad things, or at least put a positive spin on them, making them not-as-bad? Maybe. And maybe I'll enjoy the good things a little more, the sum total giving me a brighter outlook on life...?

So does the opposite apply? If I'm Mr. Grumblypants, and I tend to look for negativity in the world, does finding it not only give me brief morbid satisfaction, but also reinforce my own grumbliness? Good things are immediately dismissed as flukes, yet bad things are relished and dwelt upon.

My ex-girlfriend from college claimed to have really bad luck. And in spite of being a positive, selfless person, really seemed to. Things just seemed to go wrong for her. It was sort of eerie.

But thinking back, I can't help but wonder that if we all kept a running tally of good things and bad things that happen to us, if it would all come out about the same. And that it's our level of optimism/pessimism that interprets those events, and changes our outlook, and creates a more or less hospitable environment for more good or bad things to take hold.

Add things that are under our control into the mix, and the conversation really gets interesting. Sure, a tree branch could fall on your car randomly, and that can be interpreted as you will. But when you are having fights with your partner, and lose your job, and cat gets sick, there's a possibility that you somehow have a hand in that (which opens up more of a chicken v. egg, outlook v. occurrence conversation).

Does anyone understand what I'm saying? I'm kind of all over the road on this one, and would be interested in your thoughts.

PS: I'm not picking on any specific person in this post. Honestly. Not even you (you know who you are). But I am thinking of general classes of people (optimists and pessimists), which we fall into in some capacity.

I wonder... an optimist might respond: "Yes, good things happen to good people!"
A pessimist might respond: "No! Bad things happen to good people!"

Ha. :)