The 23 year old soccer player whose coach always makes excuses why their team loses, the 19 year old graduate who’s worried that her resumé is not perfect and anyone who keeps complaining about what’s in the newspaper.

1. Optimists see problems as temporary, pessimists as permanent . Sticking with the example from Mindset , if optimists  spill their coffee they won’t say “I always spill my coffee and ruin my clothes.”, but rathe...

Learned Optimism digs into why optimists are healthier, happier, and more successful people than pessimists, how both are learned attitudes and what you can do to become an optimist yourself.

It works like this: When facing a crisis, you note 3 things about it.

What’s the A dversity?

For example you just got fired.

What is my B elief about this?

Learned Optimism is so packed with actionable advice and great insights, it’s hard to condense it any further.

I’m a big fan of positive psychology and this book intersects a lot with

He calls optimism and pessimism explanatory styles , they are the way in which we explain bad events in our lives.

2. Optimists see problems as specific to a situation, pessimists make them a general case.  Being on a team assignment where one person doesn’t deliver their part, a pessimist is likely to say: “This team sucks.” and write off the entire team as lazy. An optimist would say: “One ...

So what can you do to become an optimist as quickly as possible?

Use the ABC technique by Albert Ellis .

Then you can start labeling your thoughts into two categories: useful and not useful . Whenever you notice a thought is not useful to you, then you should probably not pursue it any further.

Start thinking of negative events as temporary, specific and external, record your...

Go through your recent, negative self-talk and try to record 3 ABCs.

Be sure to pick major challenges and differentiate between thoughts and feelings. Telling yourself you’re a bad golfer or that you have bad memory is a belief, crying or getting angry are the feelings th...

Do you see some people in your life who just seem to have everything fall into their lap? Who master life as if in cruise control mode, where everything works on autopilot and is super easy?

I know I do.

Martin Seligman , th...

What’s more, optimists are likely to take good care of their bodies, because they believe that their choices will make a difference. Pessimists are prone to junk food and no exercise, as they believe it won’t matter.

On the other hand, pessimism  can likely be a ca...

3. Optimists see problems as externally caused, pessimists blame themselves.  When getting a divorce, both people will think one of them is the major cause. An optimist will always attribute the failure to an external source, in this case, their former spouse (“He never wanted ki...

Talent at work is just as overrated as talent in professional sports . The University of Pennsylvania usually assesses their freshmen according to their SATs, high school grades and achievement test. When they let Seligm...

How you decide to deal with a negative event determines almost entirely how much it will affect you.  That’s why it’s important to start recording your ABCs and seeing where you can change your beliefs.

Once you’ve recorded a few negative believes, start challengin...

That same optimism will also carry you through a successful career , as Seligman’s study with Metropolitan shows. He hired people for them who underperformed skill-wise, but showed great optimism....

"I don't mind being wrong, and I don't mind changing my mind."

-Martin Seligman

For example you believe you did a horrible job and that’s why you were let go.

What is the C onsequence of my belief?

For example you feel depressed and can’t get out of bed for 2 weeks.