Feel Good Fridays

For a breif explanation of Feel Good Fridays click here.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist, what's your explanatory style?

Why are some people successful despite many setbacks and others fail?  Why do some people keep striving and others give up?  Psychologists relate this to your explanatory style, the way you explain events to yourself.

Seligman says there are 3 dimensions to explanatory style but today I am just going to focus on one...permanence.  When something bad happens to you does it feel like it will be that way forever or do you think of it as only a temporary setback?  For instance, you don't get hired for the job you wanted...do you think "I will never get hired for a good job" or do you think "the competition was tough for this job, I will have better luck with the next one."  Seligman explains that people who are successful in life think of bad events as only temporary.  Failure makes everyone feel momentarily helpless, those that can let go of failure faster are able to continue to try for success.  For good events, optimists think the opposite; good events are permanent.  People who believe good events have permanence are more likely to try harder after they succeed.  Those who feel they are temporary are more likely to give up.

Training yourself to think more optimistically will ultimately lead to being more successful in all aspects of life; you relationships, your job, your creative endeavors, etc.

Happy Friday everyone!