Connections To Positive Psychology

In 2007, I learned from reading Dr. Martin Seligman’s book, “Learned Optimism” that Mom had taught me to be an optimist. Of the three “origins of optimism”, I come relatively blessed:

1. Mother’s explanatory style – if the mother’s style is permanent, pervasive and personal about bad events, the children learn to be pessimistic and vice versa
2. Adult criticism – adults can be powerful “wizards”, both for the good and bad. When I was a wee lad, I was sitting on a log in a saw horse while my brother Al who was ten years older was cutting the log into stove lengths with a hand “buck” saw. A family friend commented to me, “You are quite a helper, aren’t you?” And that is something I have said to myself many times as a kid (“positive self-talk”), and what I grew up to be.
3. Child’s Life Crises – we had things tough, to the point my sister would say, “I’m flat busted! And I don’t have any money either.” But, we really didn’t have crises, and others around us were not all that much better off than we were.

So I was one of the lucky ones, when it comes to learning optimism and willingness to try new things, which has come in handy when the events in my life called for me to be resilient.

(For much more on Positive Psychology, click on the link from my coaching practice website Peak Effectiveness. There is an entire course there, free, and, from my upbringing in the U.P., I know that anything free is worth savin' up fer.)

My Meandering Career – What’s It All About? biography continued)