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Anonymous
2016-04-23 06:18:27 Post No. 28061197
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Anonymous
2016-04-23 06:18:27
Post No. 28061197
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Where do you lie on the optimism-pessimism spectrum, /r9k/?
https://web.stanford.edu/class/msande271/onlinetools/LearnedOpt.html
Post your results and thoughts in the thread!
Why does it matter?
The analogy is as such:
Smoking is to lung cancer as pessimism is to depression.
"Twenty-five years of study has convinced me that if we
habitually believe, as does the pessimist, that misfortune is our fault, is
enduring, and will undermine everything we do, more of it will befall us
than if we believe otherwise. I am also convinced that if we are in the grip
of this view, we will get depressed easily, we will accomplish less than our
potential, and we will even get physically sick more often. Pessimistic
prophecies are self-fulfilling."
"Many things in life are beyond our control-our eye color, our race, the
drought in the Midwest. But there is a vast, unclaimed territory of actions
over which we can take control-or cede control to others or to fate. These
actions involve the way we lead our lives, how we deal with other people,
how we earn our living-all the aspects of existence in which we normally
have some degree of choice. The way we think about this realm of life can actually
diminish or enlarge the control we have over it. Our thoughts are not merely reactions to
events; they change what ensues."
What if the traditional view of the components of success is wrong?
What if there is a third factor-optimism or pessimism-that matters as much as talent or desire?
What if you can have all the talent and desire necessary-yet, if you are a pessimist, still fail?
What if optimists do better at school, at work, and on the playing field?
What if optimism is a learned skill, one that can be permanently acquired?
"Pessimists can in fact
learn to be optimists, and not through mindless devices like whistling a
happy tune or mouthing platitudes ("Every day, in every way, I'm getting
better and better"), but by learning a new set of cognitive skills."
