Optimism can help you to be happier, healthier and more successful. Pessimism leads, by contrast, to hopelessness, sickness and failure, and are linked to depression, loneliness and painful shyness. If people could [1] ______ think more positively, it will be like inoculating them against these mental [2] ______ ills. People’s ability counts, but the belief which one can succeed affects [3] ______ whether or not one will. In part, that’s because of optimists and pessimists [4] ______ deal with the same challenges and disappointments in very different way. Take, for example, your job. It was found that the positive salesmen sold more insurance than the negative thinkers. [5] ______ How did they do it The secret of an optimist’s success is in his "ex - planatory style". When things go wrong, the pessimist tends to blame himself. "I’m not good at this," he says, "I always fail. " The optimist looks at loopholes. He blames the weather, the phone connection, even the other [6] ______ person. That customer was in a bad mood, he thinks. When things go right, the optimist takes credit while the pessimist sees success as a fluke. During a research project, a group of students was asked to phone [7] ______ strangers and ask them to donate blood to the Red Cross. When they failed on the first call or two, pessimists said, "I can’ t do this. " Optimists told themselves, "I need to try the different approach. " [8] ______ Negative or positive, it was a self - fulfilling prophecy. If people feel hopelessly, [9] ______ they don’t bother to acquire the skills they need succeed. [10] ______