How do you exercise control in an environment where much is out of your control? What is your current relationship with uncertainty and ambiguity?
How do advantage leaders navigate inevitable loss without being thrown off course?
If you studied psychology in the 1970s you would have learned about Martin Seligman's research into ‘learned helplessness’, which described how uncontrollable adverse events can make people feel powerless and passive. Significant societal and personal problems such as long-term unemployment, substance abuse, depression and anxiety have been closely linked to this concept.
If you were still studying psychology in the 1990s you might have smiled when Seligman reappeared, this time as a bestselling author with a much less gloomy book title, Learned Optimism, and the message that optimism contributes to wellbeing in adults and children.
Optimism is now a cornerstone of the Positive Psychology movement and along with its opposite, pessimism, plays a vital role in building resilience and adaptability.
The psychology of certainty and control
Optimism sounds like an obvious way to approach the world but what if you lose your sense of certainty, of being able to plan, while facing seemingly endless negative events? Why wouldn't you pessimistically assume you have no control over your world ...
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