Most people think of an optimist as someone who always views
the glass as half full, walks around with a beaming smile all the time, posts
pithy quotes about happiness on Facebook, and perhaps has lost touch with reality.
Optimism, as defined by Professor Martin Seligman, the leader of the Positive Psychology movement, has a deeper meaning. Martin Seligman says, “The basis of optimism does not lie in positive phrases or images of victory, but in the way you think about causes”.
Although I confess that I have played Pollyanna’s “glad game” for most of my life and am prone to post or re-post inspirational quotes via Facebook , in my workshops, I focus on Seligman’s deeper definition of optimism.
Seligman says that we all have an “explanatory style” that we use to think about the causes of incidents in our lives. He says there are three central dimensions which we use to interpret events in our lives: permanence,pervasiveness and personalization. Each of these dimensions plays a role in our interpretation of events. Optimists have a tendency to take ownership for positive events, and interpret negative events as temporary, finite, and outside themselves. Pessimists, on the other hand, personalize negative events, and interpret positive events as temporary, lucky, and outside their realm of control. Most often, we learn these mind sets as children. Fortunately, the mind is malleable, and reframing towards an optimistic lean is possible.
Neuroscientist Tali Sharot studies optimism and the brain. In her research, she discovered that "our brains aren't just stamped by the past. They are constantly being shaped by the future." “Whatever happens, whether you succeed or you fail, people with high expectations always feel better, because how we feel — when we get dumped or we win employee of the month — depends on how we interpret that event.” Interpretation is under individual control, and we can rewire our brains to construe events differently, with practice.
Creating a positive mindset can change your life for the better. Barbara Fredrickson’s research on Positivity led to the discovery that experiencing positive emotions in a 3:1 ratio with negative emotions leads people to “a tipping point beyond which they naturally become more resilient to adversity and effortlessly achieve what once they could only imagine. “ Additionally, Fredrickson and Marcial Losada discovered that the 3:1ratio is critical for high-performance teams. (Incidentally, for a marriage to flourish the positive to negative ratio should be 5:1.)
In my work as a group facilitator, I have observed that to be successful in the tougher challenges, it is critical to have one or more optimists on the team for the group or team to reach the right “positivity ratio”, the tipping point for a high-performance team. However, merely having an optimist on the team isn’t enough. The whole team has to be performing on this ratio of 3:1 positivity, which requires open mindedness, active listening skills, and other components of a healthy and adaptive system.
A few weeks ago, I facilitated a customer service workshop in the west end. Early in the workshop, I noted two women who presented with high optimism. They were eager to set high goals for achievement, and believed the team could accomplish the goals. Their contagious optimism led to a spread of positivity that created the critical tipping point, and the team was able to cut their initial performance time in half. The other team also had several optimists. However, that team was unable to leverage the optimism across the team. They did not practice the skills of good listening, open mindedness, or other key components of a flourishing team. Although they began the initiative with a good time, they were unable to reduce their time in subsequent trials and the negativity and pessimism were beginning to spread after a mere ten minutes of activity.
To learn practical and research based tools to increase your positivity ratio, raise your awareness about optimism, and rewire your brain to create a more flourishing life (or a high-performance team) in a fun experiential format, join me for The Mental Fitness series. Learn more on my website: www.kiccoaching.com.
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