Originally posted Aug 24, 2017 on www.energised.life

I’ve been reading a lot of books recently around Positive Psychology – in preparation of taking my education further, but I discovered something quite interesting about myself last week.

I’m currently reading “Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life” by Martin Seligman (the ‘Father’ of Positive Psychology) which describes Optimism and Pessimism in a slightly different way than I’ve always looked at it.

For me, being an optimist was ‘always looking on the bright side’ and a pessimist was someone who always saw the bad in everything. So I felt that I sat nearer the optimist end of the scale, generally seeing the benefits in most things.

I’d say that my feelings changed after giving birth however, I certainly felt I looked more on the negative side of life.

Anyway, within Positive Psychology, Seligman explains

“The basis of optimism does not lie in positive phrases or images of victory, but in the way you think about causes.”

It’s quite an in-depth description, so I shall try to keep it short and sweet, but he argues that there are three ways we interpret events in our lives, permanence, pervasiveness* and personalisation.

So essentially, an optimist will look at a BAD event in their life (like failing an exam) and think:

• The exam questions were hard (Not personal)
• I’ll pass it next time (Not Permanent)
• I failed today, but it’s my birthday tomorrow so i’m going to enjoy it

Whereas a Pessimist would think:

• It’s all my fault, I’m stupid (Personal)
• I’m never going to pass this exam (Permanent)
• This is the end of my dreams (Pervasive)

However, when something GOOD happens (i.e doing well in the exam), it flips:

The optimist thinks:

• I did a great job (Personal)
• I’m really good at this subject (Permanent)
• I can do well in the next exam too (Pervasive)

And the pessimist:

• The questions were easy (Not Personal)
• It was luck on the day (Not Permanent)
• I can still fail the next one (Not Pervasive)

Example adapted from The Positive Psychology Masterclass.

I wonder if you recognise yourself in this?

I undertook a short test in the book and discovered that I am optimist when something goes wrong – but a pessimist when something goes right. Not in all situations of course but it really made me realise that I truly don’t give myself credit when I do something well and sometimes look to exclude myself as a reason for failure.

It’s something I’ll be working on! What are your thoughts?

It’s also something I’m going to do some research on with new mums and also in the workplace… to understand where the balance needs to be.

*I had to initially look up ‘pervasiveness’ so for anyone like me’s benefit, here is the definition: pervasiveness, noun – the quality of spreading widely or being present throughout an area or a group of people.