7/9/2020 Learned Optimism Summary - Four Minute Books

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Learned Optimism Summary

 December 21, 2015 (https://fourminutebooks.com/learned-optimism-summary/)  Niklas Goeke
(https://fourminutebooks.com/author/linuscaldwell300/)  Self Improvement (https://fourminutebooks.com/category/self-
improvement/)

1-Sentence-Summary: Learned Optimism (https://amzn.to/2USoHzO) 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.

Read in: 4 minutes

Favorite quote from the author:

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 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Seligman), the father of positive

psychology, has spent decades of research trying to nd out why some people maneuver
through their lives so easily.
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His answer: They’re optimists.
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7/9/2020 Learned Optimism Summary - Four Minute Books

He calls optimism andWe

pessimism explanatory styles, they
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bad events in our lives. only if you're sure it comes from safe sites.

There are 3 characteristic points of view when looking at problems, in which optimists
and pessimists di er.

1. Optimists see problems as temporary, pessimists as permanent. Sticking with the

example from Mindset (http://fourminutebooks.com/mindset-summary/), if optimists
 spill their co ee they won’t say “I always spill my co ee and ruin my clothes.”, but rather
“I spilled my co ee this time, but I won’t spill the next one.”

2. Optimists see problems as speci c 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 o the entire team as lazy. An
optimist would say: “One person is not very helpful, but I’m sure the rest of the team will
do great work.”

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 kids anyway”). The pessimist is likely to blame
herself (“I never made time for her that’s why she left me).

Luckily, both styles are acquired and can be learned.

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it
whenever you want.

Download PDF  (https://pages.convertkit.com/a43706dbc6/49a09fb4f3)

Until now your explanatory style has been shaped primarily by your parents and your
teachers in school.

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7/9/2020 Learned Optimism Summary - Four Minute Books

Have you ever heard aWeteacher

tested thisyell
pageat someone
and for chatting
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from
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because it’s an external problem they point to. “You have to listen more closely next
only if you're sure it comes from safe sites.
time.” is a much better statement than “You’re just a bad reader.” because the latter
makes the student internalize the problem.

One of the advantages of being an optimist is being healthier.

Studies found optimism boosts your immune system (http://www.livescience.com/8158-

optimism-boosts-immune-system.html), and even increased the health of cancer
patients (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100303131656.htm).

What’s more, optimists are likely to take good care of their bodies, because they believe
that their choices will make a di erence. 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 cause of depression. Believing that

nothing you do will change anything can of course make you depressed. A study
(http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/31/2/311/) where people had to press buttons to
make noises stop found symptoms of depression in them whenever the experiment was
rigged so that the buttons had no e ect.

Optimism is also a deciding factor in professional sports. Seligman looked at

baseball teams in 1985 and determined the New York Mets were the most optimistic
team (http://gyroconsulting.com/2014/11/03/the-power-of-optimism/), the St. Luis
Cardinals the most pessimistic. Guess who won the World Series
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_World_Series) one year later? The Mets.

Talent at work is just as overrated as talent in professional sports. The University of

Pennsylvania (https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/) usually assesses their
freshmen according to their SATs, high school grades and achievement test. When they
let Seligman segment the new students into optimists and pessimists, it turned out that
the optimists exceeded expectations, where pessimists fell behind.

That same optimism will also carry you through a successful career, as Seligman’s
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underperformed skill-wise, but

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

Use the ABC technique by Albert Ellis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ellis).

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

What’s the Adversity?

For example you just got red.

What is my Belief about this?

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

What is the Consequence of my belief?

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

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

Be sure to pick major challenges and di erentiate 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 that follow from your belief.

How you decide to deal with a negative event determines almost entirely how
much it will a ect 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 challenging them. Ask yourself if

they’re really true, whether there’s another explanation and if they’re true, what that
implies.
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Then you can start labeling your

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pursue it any further.

Start thinking of negative events as temporary, speci c and external, record your ABCs
and know that your attitude is learned – you can change it at any time.

This way, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a true optimist.

Learned Optimism Review

This is probably my favorite summary on Blinkist. Learned Optimism

(https://amzn.to/2USoHzO) 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 Mindset by Carol
Dweck (http://fourminutebooks.com/mindset-summary/), but is much more
encompassing.

This is the rst book summary I would recommend anyone read as soon as they sign up
for Blinkist.

Who would I recommend the Learned Optimism summary to?

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.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR  (HTTPS://WWW.TED.COM/SPEAKERS/MARTIN_SELIGMAN)

READ THE FULL BOOK SUMMARY ON BLINKIST  (HTTP://FOURMINUTEBOOKS.COM/GO/BLINKIST/)

GET THE BOOK ON AMAZON  (HTTP://AMZN.TO/1JOLOVI)

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16 thoughts to “Learned Optimism

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