Yup. You read that one right. Being negative isn't always a bad thing. In contrast to what everyone else says, I believe that there needs to be a healthy balance of both positivity and negativity. Every time I try to convince my friends that the glass doesn't have to be half full, they pass me off as "the pessimist." "Can you just focus on the bright side, please?" is something that I hear daily. However, in my opinion, being negative has its positive sides as well.
When you see the negative side of a situation, you see the worst possible outcomes, and hence, you can prepare and have backup plans. You would have a plan on how to improvise or do something else when things don't go your way. On the other hand, if you're a so-called "optimistic" person and only look at the bright side, you think that you can pull off whatever you have in mind. However, all of us know that things never go the way we plan, and not having a backup plan can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.
As the saying goes, hope for the best, expect the worst. I believe that there is no wrong in expecting the worst. I'm not saying that you should not try your best, but it's a win-win situation if you try to keep your expectations low. Expecting a low score and getting higher than that is always better than expecting the best score and getting something a little bit lower than that.
There are some days when everything goes wrong and you feel down. It's only natural to have negative thoughts. In my opinion, you shouldn't force yourself to be happy or to see the "brighter side" if you don't want to. You don't always have to make lemonade when life hands you lemons if you don't feel like it. Sadness and negative thoughts are a natural part of life and these feelings can be embraced rather than chased away. Chasing away these thoughts and always forcing yourself to think of something positive can somehow make you gullible. Some feelings and thoughts when you're down can build you as a person and make you understand life. When you know the bad things in life, it makes you appreciate the good things more.
All in all, the message of my article is not to hate on the optimists or to promote negative thinking. I just believe having some kind of negativity in your system can sometimes be good for you. It's better to be prepared for any situation than to be an overconfident prick. The conventional idea of always being optimistic doesn't work in real life. Both pessimism and optimism in their extremes can be bad, but it's never wrong to have a little bit of both.