PDF Summary:Learned Optimism, by Martin E. P. Seligman

Many people suffer from learned helplessness: the belief that they don’t have the power to make positive changes in their own lives or in the world around them. Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism will teach you how to break out of that pessimistic, powerless mindset and replace it with an empowered mindset of optimism and confidence. Seligman is a professional psychologist, teacher, and author. His theories of learned helplessness and learned optimism are based on his own laboratory studies. He began these studies in the 1960s and has continued tweaking and reexamining them to the present day.

Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness has become widespread, both in the field of psychology and among laypeople. However, Learned Optimism was published in 1990, and there have been significant advances in the field of psychology since then. Our commentary will explore those new developments as needed, provide a grounding in core concepts of psychology, and offer actionable advice.

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• Write to people whom you’re especially impressed by or unhappy with. Additionally, write letters to local politicians and other community leaders who are in a position to make positive changes. By doing so, you’ll make your voice heard and help push the changes you want to see in your community.

(Shortform note: Interestingly, writing letters—even letters you never plan to send—is an established technique in psychology to help you recognize and confront strong feelings. Writing a letter forces you to organize and express your thoughts in a coherent way, which helps you to understand and come to terms with what you’re actually feeling. Also, writing a resentful letter is simply an effective way to vent; to get the feelings out so that you can move past them. In short, whether you do as Seligman says and actually send the letters, or just write them for your own benefit, this is an effective way to improve your mood and stop dwelling on your pessimistic thoughts.)

Your Mindset Comes From How You Explain Things to Yourself

So far, we’ve explained that modern culture’s obsession with the self has led to widespread feelings of pessimism and depression. Now, let’s get more specific about how pessimists think, so we can contrast this pessimistic mindset with the optimistic, empowered mindset Seligman advocates.

Seligman says that learned helplessness (or pessimism) and learned optimism come from our thought patterns: how we explain events to ourselves and how we view ourselves in relation to the world. Therefore, we can unlearn pessimism and learn optimism by working on changing our thought patterns. (Seligman calls these thought patterns “explanatory styles.”)

We shape our thought patterns based on our time in school, our interactions with our parents, and our general life experiences. However, we’re not stuck with whatever way of thinking we learned as children. By becoming aware of our thought patterns, applying consistent effort, and undergoing cognitive therapy, we can change the way we think.

What Is Cognitive Therapy?

Seligman proposes Cognitive Therapy (CT) as a way to change your thought patterns. CT is a type of treatment plan for mental disorders; it’s based on the idea that psychological problems are rooted, at least partially, in harmful and uncontrolled thought patterns. So—with the help of a therapist or psychologist—the patient examines his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs to look for faulty and unhelpful habits. After identifying those unhealthy ways of thinking, the patient and the therapist can work together to adjust them.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is based on the same principles as CT, but also helps patients to develop healthy new behaviors. Some studies have shown that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is more effective than medication at treating depression, though others say that a combination of both is the best treatment. Because it’s a more proactive approach, most psychologists prefer CBT to CT, so most of the information that’s readily available is specifically about CBT.

Pessimism Versus Optimism

Broadly speaking, we can group all thought patterns into optimism and pessimism.

Seligman says that pessimists tend to generalize and personalize negative events. In other words, they think that bad things “always” happen, and that it’s because there’s something wrong with them. Conversely, when something good happens, they assume that it’s just a stroke of luck: temporary and due to external factors.

(Shortform note: Pessimists tend to have what psychologist Carol Dweck describes in Mindset as a fixed mindset: They believe that people’s attitudes and abilities are set at birth and can’t be changed. As a result, they don’t think there’s any way to improve their lives—nature, or fate, or some other higher power has put them into a certain situation, and there’s nothing they can do about it.)

Optimists are the opposite: They tend to generalize and personalize positive events. When something good happens, they think it’s because of their own abilities, or simply because good things always happen to them. Conversely, when something bad happens, they see it as a temporary setback due to external causes—they’ll say something like, “Things didn’t work out this time.”

(Shortform note: According to Dweck, the opposite of a fixed mindset is a growth mindset. In simple terms, someone with a growth mindset believes that people can change; they can improve their skills and their attitudes in order to make positive changes in the world around them. A growth mindset goes hand-in-hand with optimism because someone with a growth mindset will see problems as temporary setbacks—challenges to overcome—instead of fixed and unchangeable truths about the world.)

Benefits of Optimism

Aside from giving us a generally improved mood and outlook on life, Seligman says that an optimistic mindset has numerous concrete health benefits, including:

• Reduced stress. Pessimism is extremely stressful: We blame ourselves for problems and, at the same time, assume that there’s nothing we can do about them. Switching to a more optimistic mindset greatly reduces that burden.

(Shortform note: Stress is known to cause health problems ranging from insomnia to heart disease. Reducing stress is one of the surest ways to live a longer and healthier life.)

• Stronger friendships. Optimists are generally more pleasant to be around than pessimists. Furthermore, optimists are more likely to work at staying connected with people and keeping their friendships strong, while pessimists are more likely to lose touch with people and give up on maintaining those relationships.

(Shortform note: Studies have found that having three to five strong friendships is better for your mental health than splitting your time among a lot of acquaintances—in other words, when it comes to friendship, quality is more important than quantity. So, if you’ve got a few good friends, you should feel optimistic about your social life.)

• Higher failure resilience. Remember that optimists generally assume that things go badly because of temporary and external reasons. That mindset means they’re much more likely to try again after they fail, because they see their initial failure as just bad luck rather than some personal shortcoming.

(Shortform note: Even if you did fail because of a personal shortcoming, that very failure might give you the extra strength or knowledge that you need to succeed next time. Navy SEAL William H. McRaven illustrates this point in Make Your Bed: During SEAL training, McRaven consistently fell behind the other cadets in swimming, and he was punished for it with extra exercise. However, during his final test, McRaven finished first in swimming—his repeated failures, and the extra work that came with them, had made him the strongest swimmer in the group.)

• Improved performance in all areas of life: sports, school, work, and so on. Pessimists aren’t likely to put forth their best effort. After all, if things aren’t going to go their way anyway, then why bother? Conversely, optimists will usually try their best—on the assumption that things will go their way—and perform better overall as a result.

(Shortform note: This increased performance helps optimists achieve a better work-life balance. Optimists are also better at achieving work-life balance because they don’t tend to spend their free time dwelling on past mistakes or dreading the coming workday. Therefore, an optimist can fully enjoy his or her free time, then return to work feeling rested and fulfilled.)

Learn a New Thought Pattern

We’ve discussed the different types of thought patterns and the benefits of optimism. Now, we’ll discuss how to improve your life by changing your thought pattern. The first step is figuring out how you currently think. According to Seligman, you can find out which thought pattern you have using a simple system:

First, identify a problem you’ve faced recently—perhaps an argument with a friend, a car accident, or an issue at work or school. Next, examine your thoughts about that event; in other words, what story are you telling yourself about why the problem happened? For example, do you believe that you made a mistake at work because you’re stupid or bad at your job? Or did you make that mistake because something distracted you, or because you didn’t have the right information on hand?

Finally, consider the results of the problem and your own thoughts about it. Some questions you might ask yourself here are: How do you feel? Is the problem still weighing on you? Have you learned something from the experience? Do you think you’ll be able to avoid that problem in the future?

(Shortform note: What Seligman describes here is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) technique called guided discovery. Guided discovery aims to disrupt your thoughts; to break up the automatic patterns you fall into so you can examine and correct them. However, it’s worth noting that guided discovery is usually done with the help of a trained therapist—someone who knows how to recognize harmful thought patterns and guide you toward more helpful ones. Though Seligman is a psychologist, and his method of changing your thoughts by questioning them is similar to guided discovery in a professional setting, following his advice alone may not produce the best results—this technique will be more effective with the help of a therapist or counselor.)

Dispute Your Pessimistic Beliefs

Seligman offers a couple of techniques, drawn from cognitive therapy, to help you become more optimistic by changing the way you explain negative events to yourself. The first technique is to examine your belief.

Start this process by asking yourself if what you believe is really true. What evidence is there for it and against it? After considering that evidence, does your belief seem rational? Also, ask what the implications of your belief are. In other words, if it were true, what would that mean for you? Conversely, what would it mean for you if you were wrong?

Once you’ve considered whether your belief is true or not, and what that means for you, think about if your belief is useful. Does it empower you, energize you, or help you prepare for the future? If not, is it worth holding on to this belief? On that note, think about some different beliefs you could replace it with. How else might you interpret the event in question? Is there an explanation that doesn’t depend on something being wrong with you?

(Shortform note: While useful for reframing your thoughts, Seligman’s process here doesn’t suggest any course of action you can take based on your beliefs. To that end, in The 4-Hour Workweek, entrepreneur and lifestyle guru Tim Ferriss suggests another useful question to ask yourself in stressful or worrisome situations: What will I do about it? In other words, if the belief that you’re worrying about actually turns out to be true, how would you handle it? Planning for the worst can help you stay calm and confident, as long as you don’t keep dwelling on the worst once your plan is in place.)

The second technique is to give pessimistic beliefs an external voice. Find a friend who’s willing to roleplay your negative beliefs. Have that person attack you the same way you attack yourself, and learn to defend yourself from that sort of aggression. You may find it easier to fight back against an external voice, and having to defend yourself out loud might help you to hear how fair and reasonable those defenses really sound.

(Shortform note: Another way of coming to terms with that negative voice in your head is to give it a silly name and a silly voice. In short, turn your inner critic into a character you can’t take seriously, and it will lose its power over you—for example, it’s hard to feel worried or upset when your inner critic sounds like Skeletor.)

Balance Optimism With Realism

Seligman says that a pessimistic mindset does have one advantage over an optimistic one: Pessimists tend to assess their situations more realistically.

Therefore, Seligman concludes by saying that we should balance our optimism with realism, a mindset he calls flexible optimism. The good news is that, because we’ve learned optimism as a skill set—instead of having it as a natural state of mind—we can choose when to apply those skills. For example, if someone is upset with us, we can start by asking ourselves if we’re really to blame (rather than the pessimistic approach of assuming that we are at fault, or the optimistic approach of assuming that we aren’t). With that realistic approach we’ll be able to take appropriate action to fix the situation; even if we decide that all we can do is apologize.

(Shortform note: Seligman is saying that realism is a balanced, healthy form of pessimism, but they’re not quite the same thing. The best way to tell the difference between pessimism and realism is to consider whether you’re emotionally invested in your explanation. In other words, are you seeing things calmly and rationally (realism), or are you casting yourself in a story as the villain or the victim (pessimism)?)

As his final point, Seligman adds that people who are naturally optimistic can also benefit from balanced optimism. Optimists tend to believe that they have more control over their situations than they really do, or simply that “everything will turn out fine” even if they do nothing. In their case, finding balance means recognizing those shortcomings and thinking about when things might really be out of their control—and, alternatively, when the situation calls for them to step up and take action.

(Shortform note: Studies have found that too much optimism—unbalanced optimism—leads people to take unnecessary risks and make unwise decisions. For example, in one study, people classified as “extreme optimists” were likely to work fewer hours than most people, save less money, and engage in unhealthy habits like smoking. In short, extreme optimists tend to overestimate the benefits and underestimate the risks of any given situation, which is why Seligman says it’s an unrealistic mindset.)