Years after the initial impact that Martin Seligman’s work had on positive psychology it continues to be relevant today; increasingly so in this challenging financial climate where uncertainty is the norm, and ‘more is required from less’. In short, staying positive has never been so important.
Most of us are aware that having a positive attitude confers certain benefits – living longer, being more resilient, and having better relationships, to name a few – and that over time we develop deep-rooted, often unhelpful, patterns of behaviour which can be difficult to change. However, I don’t think most people spend much time considering how positive their attitude actually is and that determines the ways in which they deal with everyday events.
For example, if you’re a largely optimistic person when bad things happen – you’re late for a meeting – you might chalk it up to terrible traffic or another external circumstance. On the other hand, your more pessimistic friend might blame him/herself, seeing parallels with similar situations he/she has been in that have ended badly. Conversely, when good things happen to your pessimistic friend – their presentation goes really well – he/she may well attribute it to luck or a receptive audience, whereas you might attribute your success to the fact were really well prepared and motivated to do a great job.
Some of this is determined by your personality, but in simple terms it pays to be an optimist and to develop good habits in terms of how you attribute success and failure. Techniques born out of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can be a very useful aid to developing these habits – they help people to identify and challenge negative automatic thoughts and replace them with alternative, realistic and positive ways of thinking. Whilst these techniques require a fair investment of time and effort, there are some great resources available, and I challenge you to look at your own thinking habits and how you can develop them. These are skills that often pay dividends when times are tough.
