How To Be An Optimist – A Review Of Seligman’s Learned Optimism

 

I confess I’ve never paid much attention to ‘optimism’.  It always seemed nebulous and watery to me, like ‘being positive’ – vague notions which lead to dangerous self-delusion. I’ve always preferred cold, hard, evidence-based analyses, concrete action and giving myself over to that which I can control. Imagine my surprise then, when I discovered that Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism contained all of these. The book had been recommended to me by someone I respect, so I was piqued but approached it with a healthy skepticism.

 

The Difference Between Optimists And Pessimists

According to Seligman, what separates optimists and pessimists is their ‘explanatory style’, or, how they explain adverse events to themselves. For pessimists, adversity is a permanent state that they are helpless to change. Further, when something bad happens, for them it is pervasive; it invades all aspects of their lives and derails everything they are doing. As Seligman puts it, when one thread snaps, the whole fabric of their lives unravels. Optimists however, see adverse events as temporary; if they keep working the problem will pass. And they contain the problem to within that one part of their lives, so everything else keeps functioning.  The other important difference is that pessimists blame themselves whereas optimists blame outside events or somebody else or just plain bad luck. The net result is that optimists possess the ability to persevere whereas pessimists tend to give up as they collapse under the weight of their own helplessness. This explains why optimists achieve more than pessimists.

 

 

How To Be An Optimist Then? 

The good news is that Seligman informs us that our habits of thought are not set in stone,  we can change them, we can change the way we think. Pessimistic habits of thought grow out of a sense of hopelessness, a sense that we cannot influence what happens to us. But this habit is not ingrained, it is learned. The implication then, is that optimistic thinking can be learned too – we can have control and influence over what happens to us – pessimists can learn to be optimists – they can rewire their thinking.

 

 

Disputation 

Seligman offers simple techniques as a means of learning to switch from a pessimistic explanatory style to an optimistic one. ‘Disputation’ for example, is the central technique of Learned Optimism. Essentially, it involves attacking pessimistic thought patterns with reasoned argument.

There are 4 ways to make a Disputation convincing:

1. Find evidence to counter the pessimistic beliefs.
2. Find alternative explanations for your actions.
3. Explore the implications of your pessimistic beliefs.
4. Examine the usefulness of these beliefs.

 

Learned Optimism Technique Summary

Whenever you hit a brick wall in your work, note the adversity, the consequence [how it makes you feel], and your belief about the adversity, then dispute it. This is the optimistic approach that will help you to persevere and overcome obstacles.

 

RELATED READING
I Know What To Do, So Why Don’t I Do It?
Csikszentmihalyi’s Creativity

 

RESOURCES
Learned Optimism [audiobook]

 

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