Learning to be optimistic
Would you say you’re a pessimist or an optimist? And does it matter in the workplace?
I have just read both Authentic Happiness and the earlier Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman (see 3D HR Bookstore). Having spend years practicing ‘normal’ psychology of helping people move from say -6 to -2, Seligman posed the question why not be concerned with helping people move from say +2 to +6? Why not focus on strengths rather than weaknesses? So he created the field of Positive Psychology.
From many years of research, Seligman and his colleagues based at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that there are tangible benefits to being optimistic. These include better sales results, more success in recruitment and increased promotion prospects. A psychometric test was developed to measure a person’s natural level of optimism or pessimism. In summary, an optimist tends to attribute good events or experiences to themselves and bad events or experience to external factors. Conversely, a pessimist tends to attribute bad events or experiences to themselves and good to external factors (including luck, being in the right place, this time round etc). The more a person sees the bad experience as personal (“she doesn’t like me”), pervasive (“it doesn’t matter what I do”) and permanent (“this always happens to me”), the more pessimistic they are. And pessimism is a key contributing factor to unhappiness.
So can you do anything about it if you are a natural pessimist? Well, yes. Seligman introduces a simple and powerful ABCDE tool. An Adversity – a bad experience – leads to a Belief (I think that…) which gives rise to Consequences (so I feel like…). A downward spiral is created. But then you set up an internal dialogue to Dispute that Belief and Consequences. Which leaves you more Energised and a vicious spiral becomes a virtuous one. I’ve written a longer, one page summary in the How to… section on my website.
Thoroughly recommended reading!
