Learned optimism and the three Ps
Have you ever wondered why people who seem to be very similarly
talented can have very different dispositions toward what needs to
be done? Some are “half full” people, always seeing the bright side
of a problem, while others are “half empty.” Some are only
knocked back for a few moments when something goes wrong and
rapidly evolve a way of seeing it as an isolated misfortune, while
others immediately make it part of a pattern of failure and bad
luck.
It is not difficult to imagine which of these two types of peo-
ple is likely to be more successful, by almost any definition of that
word. I expect we all know people in the second category and find
them difficult to work with if they happen to be in our team.
Martin Seligman has done more than anyone to illuminate
this issue. His key concept of “learned optimism” was developed
more than a decade ago and outlined in his book of the same name.
Seligman suggests that the world is divided into two kinds of peo-
ple: optimists and pessimists.
I have no doubt that being successful depends, above all, on
being able to learn effectively and releasing your creativity across a
broad range of areas of interest. But it is also heavily influenced by
whether you are naturally an optimist or can learn to be one.
This concept of optimism is much more fundamental than
whether or not you are cheerful or good at thinking positively. It
comes out in your reaction to failure. As Seligman puts it,
“Changing the destructive things you say to yourself when you
experience the setbacks that life deals us is the central skill of opti-
mism.” At a time of rapid change, the way you deal with setbacks
is, inevitably, of particular importance.
It all comes down to the way you account for things that hap-
pen to you, your “explanatory style.” Seligman describes this as
having three elements: the three Ps of Permanence, Pervasiveness,
and Personalization.
Permanencedescribes whether or not you believe that things
always happen to you or that something is an isolated incident. The46 Power Up Your Mind