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Learned Optimism
How to Change Your Mind and Your Life
Learned Optimism explains why so many people grow up to be pessimistic and what the negative implications of this habit are. Furthermore, it shows how our habitual optimism or pessimism influences us for better or for worse in all areas of life. Finally, it shows how pessimists can learn how to become optimists, thus greatly improving their health and happiness, and presents several techniques for learning this new way of thinking.
- Anyone who wants to be happier
- Anyone who has ever wondered how other people make success look so easy
- Anyone with kids who hopes that they'll grow up to be optimists
Martin Seligman is a professor of psychology and chairman of the American Psychological Association. He is one of the leading figures in positive psychology, which focuses on developing the positive aspects of the human psyche (in contrast to “traditional psychology,” which deals mainly with mental illness). His other bestselling books include The Optimistic Child, Authentic Happiness and Flourish.
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Learned Optimism
How to Change Your Mind and Your Life
- Read in 18 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 11 key ideas
Synopsis
Learned Optimism explains why so many people grow up to be pessimistic and what the negative implications of this habit are. Furthermore, it shows how our habitual optimism or pessimism influences us for better or for worse in all areas of life. Finally, it shows how pessimists can learn how to become optimists, thus greatly improving their health and happiness, and presents several techniques for learning this new way of thinking.
Key idea 1 of 11
Pessimists have explanatory styles that are universal, permanent and internal; vice versa for optimists.
Whenever we experience a negative event in our lives, we always explain it to ourselves in one of two ways: optimistically or pessimistically.
But what exactly characterizes our explanatory style?
First, pessimists consider problems to be permanent, while optimists consider them only temporary.
For example, if you lose an important client, you might think, “I always lose the most important clients.” By using the word “always,” you make the explanation permanent: you've always lost important clients, and always will – so what's the point in trying?
In contrast, if you use an optimistic explanatory style, then you consider negative events to be fleeting. For instance, you might think, “I lost this one important client, but I'll do well with other ones.”
Second, where optimists think of problems as being specific to a certain situation, pessimists tend to generalize.
For example, if a pessimistic student believes that the bad grade they received is unjustified, they might go on to think of grades as unfair in general. Consequently, they might find it a lot harder to study for their next exam.
However, if they instead thought about the problem they encountered in a specific manner, then they’d focus only on the event itself. For instance, they might think: “Ok, this one professor is unfair, but perhaps the others will better appreciate my work.”
Third, while optimists tend to consider negative events as being externally caused, and positive events as internally caused, pessimists usually think of these the other way around. For example, if your spouse leaves you, you could think: “He left because I'm not good enough, or because I didn't laugh at his jokes.”
On the other hand, if you consider the source of negative events as external, you might think instead: “He simply wasn't ready for a commitment, so actually the relationship was a waste of my time.”
Luckily, the ways in which optimists and pessimists make sense of bad events are not set in stone: all three behavioral patterns can be changed.
Key ideas in this title
- Pessimists have explanatory styles that are universal, permanent and internal; vice versa for optimists.
- Pessimism and optimism are both habits of thinking, i.e., self-talk, which can be learned.
- Optimists have a better immune system and are generally healthier.
- Pessimism promotes depression.
- You are far more likely to win at sports competitions if you employ an optimistic style of thinking.
- Optimists are much more successful; talent is overrated if it’s not matched by optimism.
- Optimism is also very useful in your professional life.
- You can change your self-talk by using the ABC technique.
- Try to understand the connection between A, B and C, and change where appropriate.
- You can become an optimist by questioning and analyzing your beliefs.
- Final summary
