„You're either born with optimism or you're not" - that very belief, psychologists say, is the biggest obstacle to people becoming more cheerful. Because it's not true. Optimism isn't an eye color you inherit, but a skill that's trained - and the numbers confirm it.

According to psychologist Diana Jiménez, only 25 to 30 percent of our tendency toward optimism or pessimism has a genetic basis, linked to the regulation of serotonin and dopamine. The other 70 percent comes from experience, education, relationships, and the choices we make. In other words, the larger part is in our hands - it's just that most people don't know they can move it.

Jiménez offers four concrete exercises. First, a gratitude journal - every evening write down three specific things you're grateful for, with details, not in general. Second, cognitive reframing - when a dark thought catches you, ask yourself what's the worst that can happen, what's the best, and what's the most likely. Third, the rule of three possibilities - for every troubling situation, determine whether you can control it, change it, or just accept it.

The fourth is perhaps the least expected: to do something useful for another person. It activates the release of oxytocin and serotonin - meaning, helping others literally makes you happier. On top of all that come the ordinary, familiar things: meditation, quality sleep, a diet rich in omega-3 and magnesium, and physical activity.

But Jiménez's most important sentence is the least glamorous: „Consistency matters more than intensity." Research shows that a new habit takes on average about 66 days to become automatic. So optimism isn't a mood that strikes you on a good morning - it's something built day by day, like everything else worth having.