This is the fourteenth article in our "True Power" series. If you haven't been following the series, visit The ARTrepreneur website to read the foundational material on beliefs before continuing.

Pseudo-intellectualism views optimists as people who don't understand reality when, in fact, optimists understand reality better than anyone. They especially understand the strength required to expect the best when everyone is telling them that they're being unrealistic.

Optimism is a form of belief that permeates all other beliefs and can usher in whole new experiences. The ability to be optimistic is earned day by day. You have to train yourself to expect good things to happen to you without having any reason to expect good things to happen to you. You begin by looking for the slightest excuse to reinforce this expectation. Use the most mundane events such as the fact that the mail is delivered to your doorstep. This proves that life is convenient and organized. Or note how many people do not run into each other on the freeway. This demonstrates that people are fundamentally helpful and cooperative. Pay attention to the fact that billions of people do not kill each other everyday. That's empirical data enough, even for the most jaded, that people are well intentioned. If you make the smallest effort to open your eyes, you will notice that you are surrounded by good things.

How will this pay your rent, heal your body, or mend your relationships? - all of the things you hope to accomplish by expecting the best. Taking note of the good in the ordinary begins the process of shifting your focus. It makes you look at the world in a more realistic, more rational, more truthful light, and when you begin to embrace a more honest appraisal of life, you begin to sense your own power to shape that life. You will see that there is plenty of money to be had. You will see your innate health. You will see the unity that always existed between you and the person with whom you've been having trouble.

Without changing your focus, much of reality is invisible. By shifting your focus, you begin to realize that focus is a tool. Focus creates worlds for you to inhabit. There is the prosperity world where abundance just seems to happen to you. There's the health and vigor world where you just seem to always have robust health and energy. There's the charisma world where everyone just seems to like you, and you just seem to like everyone. There's the comprehension world where knowledge just seems to come to you with perfect ease. All of these worlds, and infinite others, exist right now, and you inhabit as many of them as you want through your focus.

Your focus is made up of the stories you tell yourself, their content and character. You learn to expect the best by telling yourself new stories. You have to exert your mental muscle to invent these stories. Maybe that muscle has never been used. That's okay. With great patience, create one new story at a time. Start with the nearest object: "This table is always here when I need it. What an incredibly useful universe."

To expect the best, you have to have a full-fledged membership with the Society of Fools, the fools who see good things where others see nothing. These fools have their minds squarely set on the substance of life. They know that mind is matter, and that they create their world through their own thoughts. They are fools enough to want to enjoy life. You should be such a fool.

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