Skip to main content

Positive Psychology

There is a movement called Positive Psychology that I believe is crucial, especially when the odds of success of a venture are low. Believe in the success and the actions you take tend to be more successful. Believe you'll fail, or collect all the hard data that says you'll fail, and chances are: you fail.

Detractors suggest that we could be hit with cold water of reality no matter what we "believe."

I say hogwash.

Check out Sue Shellenbarger's article, "Keep Thinking Happy Thoughts," (link below) if you'd like for two reasons. One, I always thought of the WSJ as infalliable (even though they do have a 'corrections' section.) And for my own part, one of my lies is that I need to be perfect to be successful. That any failure on my part was attributable to some error I made.

Also hogwash.

Winners just stay in the game and believe they can win and in the cause or adventure they are on so fully that they put their all into it.

So, do you believe you deserve a career of your dreams?

Or do you believe "the man" is punishing you? Or that you're fundamentally flawed? Or that you're owed a fantastic job and so they better give it to you? Or that they've done you wrong?

What story are you wedded to and collecting data against?

http://online.wsj.com/article/work_and_family.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments

Labels

Labels:

Comments

WorkWellGroups said…
Steven, thanks! I loved the Change Therapy e-book. And readers can link to it now through your comment.
8:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I came home HAPPY tonight

Life will never be perfect. I left the office today with a pile of "to-do" on my desk that makes my head spin. And yet, I carved out time today to do the following: 1. have a powerful yet shortened work out this morning that cleared my head and got my blood pumping. When I hit the office this morning, I hit it hard and strong, muscling through an anxiety of mammoth proportion about how I was going to get ANYTHING on my plate done. 2. pause and do networking at an industry conference. That raised my sights, beyond my little desk and day to day concerns and showed me the bigger picture. Seeing folks at a career fair quickly snapped me back to reality: I'm lucky to have a job I love in the industry I am most fond of, and in the function I care deeply about, working with people on my team I love and with colleagues to serve whom I respect. Bollywog that it's overwhelming: I'll find healthy, collaborative ways to slog through this period. 3. I managed my netw...
Post a Comment
Read more

It Gets Better

I spent some time watching the It Gets Better videos last night. Moving stuff. My favorite is the singing from the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus. It's wild how song works. The world needs all our talents. I'm good at storytelling. I'm good at helping humans align their being with their doing. To get really good at what I do, I constantly have to get better at aligning my own being with my doing. It's hard work. I think our careers help us focus on our deepest wounding as human beings, and as we get better, we develop power in that very area where we're broken. We get stronger than most other humans around that and we can GIVE that strength to others to help them along on the human journey. And that's our career. I think firemen saw some hopeless stuff growing up and are COMPELLED to run into burning buildings to do the impossible task of saving someone from fire. Nurses run TO broken bones and tend to them. I run to broken souls: I see someone struggling wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

When you can no longer bear the pain

When you can no longer bear the pain, bare your teeth. Wince: yeah, predatory animals will probably notice and turn you into appetizer, however, it gives your body the visceral response that generates the natural defenses. Grrr: it's than lion-baring show of powerful biting tools that let's others know you have the chops to turn yumminess into nutrition. Wink. Smile: sometimes it's a forced smile.  Sometimes it's a zen-like smile of acceptance and sometimes it's shadowed with a Cheshire-whimsy.  My doctor kept saying through my Odyssey-like journey over the past few days from "horrible breathing noises" to something he felt safe sending me home with, that it was my smile that was his ultimate measure of my health.  The untrained eye knows your true warm loving irrepressible smile and that it comes from a deep pleasure source. Socially, we're trained to at least respect the forced smile.  We may be sure of, and respond subtly to an ANGRY force...
Post a Comment
Read more