"There is nothing in this life quite so satisfying as to surmount trouble, and nothing so exciting as to take apart a hard tough problem and put it together rightly. And this can be done, even pleasurably done, when your mind is conditioned by a working optimism and faith and to that add expectancy....
"In making optimism effective an important element is to achieve a state of harmony. The individual who is in harmony within himself and with others is to that degree effective. When you are not in such harmony you are to that degree ineffective. As stresses are reduced or better still eliminated harmonious efficiency will begin to show in your thinking and performance...
"When you fight the game, or fight the job, or fight life you are under stress and therefore you build up resistance simply because you are out of harmony. So naturally optimism declines. But when your mind is full of joy, when you love whatever you are doing—whether selling groceries, writing books, raising children, practicing law or medicine, or going to school—when you love it and are full of happiness about it, then you step up your harmony and there is a flow to your thinking, to your living and working which makes it truly enjoyable. Result? You become much more effective. So start developing both inner and outer harmony for if you are on the outs either with yourself or others then actually you are as they say “out of it.”
"I am aware that my emphasis on optimism no matter how tough-minded is hard for some people to take. As a matter of fact it even seems to irk some of the more critical because basically they hate to see anything go well; it actually bothers them. You would think they would be happy about it. But no, instead they seem to resent any and all hopeful signs. If things weren’t bad they would have nothing to be sad and gripey about."
"Of course not all of the doubters about optimism are of the beatnik variety. There are not a few normal everyday hardworking, hard-thinking people and scholars who are seriously concerned about many issues and to them hopefulness seems unrealistic, even superficial. And for them and their concern I have respect. But the tough-minded optimist has the soundest attitude; he sees all the evils and sees them straight but he still believes in better outcomes than appear likely at the moment. Only recently on a plane I encountered a man who in current jargon expressed what might be construed as a dim view of life. In fact, as he regaled me with his ideas I found myself recalling Schopenhauer’s: “Optimism cuts a sorry figure in this theatre of sin, suffering and death.”
"Menninger says, “Attitudes are more important than facts.” Sure a fact is a fact. Some people say that as something final; there’s that great big hard fact. So what can you do about it? So they give up. But the tough-minded optimist takes a positive attitude toward the fact. He sees it realistically, just as it is, but he sees something more. He views it as a challenge to his intelligence, to his ingenuity and faith. He prays and asks for insight and guidance in dealing with the hard fact. He keeps on thinking; he keeps on praying and believing. He knows there is an answer and so finally he finds it. Perhaps he changes the fact or maybe he just by-passes it or perhaps he learns to live with it. But in any case his attitude toward the fact has proved more important than the fact itself. Practice hopefulness until you master it. Then keep on practicing it, so that you keep it always working. You don’t need to take a final licking at any time, ever. With God’s help you can handle any problem."
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Project Optimism has produced "The Optimist's Gratitude Journal: 100 days to share and develop your gratitude" which is very helpful. 
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