Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

by Martin E.P. Seligman

At this moment the question to ask yourself is not “Is the belief true?” but “Is it functional fo...

distraction techniques. (Stop! Assign a later worry time. Make a written...

Another tactic is to detail all the ways you can change the situ...

Even if the belief is true now, is the situat...

ABCDE model. You already know what ABC stands for. D is for disputation; E is for energization.

observe the consequences, and dispute your beliefs vigorously.

However, she will realize it was an accident [alternative],

[evidence].

There could be a hundred reasons why

[alternatives].

[evidence].

Energization: I didn’t feel nearly as embarrassed or angry, and I realized that if I

I was able to relax and not let my imagination ruin the evening for me.

Adversity: Belief: Consequences: Disputation: Energization:

IN ORDER to practice disputation, you don’t have to wait for adversity to strike. You can have a friend provide the negative beliefs for you out loud, and then you dispute his accusations, also out loud.

Marshal all the contrary evidence you can find, spell out all the alternative explanations,

Create positive evidence , put in a jar To help deal with moments of adversity.

decatastrophize by arguing that the implications are not nearly as dire as your friend charges.

Evidence + alternative

Emotions and actions do not usually follow adversity directly. Rather they issue directly from your beliefs about adversity.

The main tool for changing your interpretations of adversity is disputation.

Practice disputing your automatic interpretations all the time from now on. Anytime you find yourself down

ask what you are saying to yourself. Sometimes the beliefs will turn out to be accurate; when this is so, concentrate on the ways you can alter the situation a...

But usually your negative beliefs are...

Challenge them. Don’t let them run your e...

School-age children have the same rate and intensity of depression as adults.

childhood pessimism is the father and mother of adult pessimism.

They also learn pessimism from the criticisms adults make of them.

teaching is also the best way of learning something well yourself.

Through teaching these skills to your child, your own grasp of them will improve enormously.

Belief: He hates me and now the whole class thinks I’m a jerk.

Consequences: I felt really sad and I wished that I could just disappear under my desk.

The beliefs are the crucial step to the consequences; when they change, the consequences do too.

Consequences: I was really scared

Emphasize how sadness, anger, fear, and giving up are all produced by his beliefs,

just because he has those thoughts does not mean the thoughts are true.

Perception is a percentage of reality

Now explain that he can dispute his own negative thoughts in just the same way he can dispute the accusations of others—

dispute the beliefs. Help him by using the evidence, alternatives, implications, and usefulness techniques,

assignment: Once a day for the next five days, he is actually to dispute a negative belief that occurs in his life.

we can examine and dispute criticisms about ourselves more easily when they issue from a neutral third party than we can when they come from a biased party.

But when she meets the wall she doesn’t get discouraged.

success makes people optimistic. But in this book we have seen repeatedly that the arrow goes in the opposite direction as well.

Optimistic people become successes.

The optimistic individual perseveres.

listening in on your own internal dialogue and disputing your negative dialogue.

Everyone has his own point of discouragement, his own wall. What you do when you hit this wall can spell the difference between helplessness and mastery, between failure and success.

become all but immune from the protracted feelings of hopelessness and helplessness

Optimistic individuals produce more, particularly under pressure, than do pessimists.

Talent and drive alone are not enough.

As we have seen, without an unshakable belief that...

high talent and relentless drive can co...