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Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman

the founder of Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman is an American psychologist, educator, and author of self-help books. Since the late 90’s, Seligman has been an avid promoter within the scientific community for the field of positive psychology. His theory of learned helplessness is popular among scientific and clinical psychologists. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Seligman as the 31st most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychology. He was previously the Director of the Clinical Training Program in the department. He is the director of the university’s Positive Psychology Center. Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association for 1998.Seligman has written about positive psychology topics in books such as The Optimistic Child, Child’s Play, Learned Optimism, and Authentic Happiness. His most recent book, Flourish, was published in 2011.

PhilosophersNotes on Martin Seligman's Books All PhilosophersNotes

Flourish

A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

by Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman is one of the founding fathers of the Positive Psychology movement and this is the third Note we’ve done on one of his books. (Check out the Notes on his other classics: Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness for more science of happiness goodness.) In this Note, we’ll explore his shift from Authentic Happiness Theory to Well-Being Theory as we wrap our brains around PERMA, his model of well-being that consists of Positive emotions + Engagement + Relationships + Meaning + Achievement. Good times.

Packs:

Conquering Depression & Positive Psychology

Best of Optimize Flourishing Modern Classic positive-psychology soul Spirit Top 101 Volume II

Learned Optimism

How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

by Martin Seligman

Did you know you can learn optimism? Yep. And, unfortunately, we can also learn helplessness. Whether we're helpless or optimistic is one of the biggest predictors of whether we're emotionally happy/healthy or depressed/unhealthy so this is BIG. In this Note, we'll explore some great Ideas on how to get our optimism on by creating more empowering explanations of what's happening in our lives.

Packs:

Conquering Cancer & Peak Performance & Positive Psychology

Modern Classic Work

Authentic Happiness

Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

by Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman is essentially the father of the Positive Psychology movement and in this Note we explore how important it is for us to use our Signature Strengths consistently throughout our day-to-day lives. We've got tips on how to discover our Strengths and how to move from a job to a career to a calling as we live a life of meaning and purpose. Good times.

Packs:

Conquering Depression & Positive Psychology

Modern Classic soul Spirit Top 101

+1s Inspired by Martin Seligman All +1s

Put Your Virtues in Action
#141

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How to Flex Your Flourishing Muscles

All ancient wisdom teachers tell us that if we want to live with a deep, abiding sense of true happiness, we need to live with virtue. Modern science, of course, confirms this ancient wisdom. In fact, the entire field of Positive Psychology was founded on the idea that we need to live in integrity with t...

+1 inspired by Note: Flourish

Packs:

Optimal Living & Positive Psychology

flourish soul Spirit Virtue

How to Flourish
#280

Science Says: PERMA

Martin Seligman is basically the Godfather of the Positive Psychology movement. He’s written a number of seminal books on the science of well-being. When Seligman first kicked off the Positive Psychology party, he wrote a book called Authentic Happiness. A decade later, he updated his thinking with a b...

+1 inspired by Note: Flourish

Packs:

Connection & Positive Psychology

Actualization Best of Optimize connection Eudaimonia flourish Happiness positive-psychology soul Spirit Wisdom

How to Learn Optimism
#281

Enter: The 3 P’s: Permanence + Pervasiveness + Personalization

In our last +1, we talked about Martin Seligman and the science of flourishing. Quick recap: It’s all about PERMA: Positive Emotion + Engagement + Relationships + Meaning + Achievement. Before he got into all that, Seligman was the world’s leading authority on how to learn optimism. But before he mas...

+1 inspired by Note: Learned Optimism

Packs:

Confidence & Positive Psychology

confidence flourish Hope optimism positive-psychology soul Spirit tool Wisdom

Jobs, Careers, Callings
#491

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Which Do You Have? (Here’s How to Make It All Three)

In our last +1, we talked about you starting a hypothetical new job. Today I want to talk about the science of jobs, careers, and callings. In Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman tells us about the “three kinds of ‘work orientation’: a job, a career, and a calling.” He says that, in short: If yo...

+1 inspired by Note: Authentic Happiness

Packs:

Positive Psychology & Purpose

flourish positive-psychology purpose self-awareness soul Spirit wealth Wisdom

Sweeping Streets with Martin Luther King
#492

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Like Shakespeare, Beethoven and Michelangelo

In our last +1, we talked about Martin Seligman’s ideas on the science of having a Job vs. a Career vs. a Calling. I proposed we aim to have ALL THREE such that our work involves us using our signature strengths in greatest service to the world WHILE getting paid well AND having fun mastering our chose...

+1 inspired by Note: Authentic Happiness

Packs:

Positive Psychology & Purpose

big-picture Character Excellence flourish positive-psychology purpose soul Spirit

Eudaimonology
#997

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The Study of a Good Soul

Somehow we’re approaching Optimize +1 #1,000 and we have yet to discuss one of my favorite Ideas and the very first thing we teach our Optimize Coaches and Mastery Optimizers. In fact, as I’ve alluded to many times, it’s “Module I” in our Mastery/Coach program. Eudaimonology. This is going to b...

+1 inspired by Note: Flourish

Packs:

Modern Hērō & Purpose

Actualization Areté big-picture Coach Eudaimonia modern-hero purpose soul Spirit

What Went Well? (And Why?!)
#1075

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Proven Way to Pump up the ‘Ol Gratitude Muscles

Gratitude. Yes, we’ve been chatting about it quite a bit recently. That’s deliberate. You know how we recently established the (scientifically-validated) Top 2 virtues as Zest + Hope? Well… Positive psychologists arm wrestle a bit about those top two virtues. While Ryan Niemiec (via The...

+1 inspired by Note: Flourish

Packs:

Conquering Depression & Positive Psychology

conquering-depression Gratitude Happiness Hope journal-exercise optimism positive-psychology Work

Helplessness vs. Optimism
#1105

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Wolves, Dogs, and Us

In our last couple +1s, we’ve been having fun spending some time with former Navy SEAL Commander and perennial wolf-tamer, Mark Divine. Most recently, we named our Courage wolf, “Daimon” and our Fear wolf, “Demon.” (As Dan Siegel and other mindfulness neuroscientists would s...

+1 inspired by Note: Learned Optimism

Packs:

Confidence & Conquering Fear

confidence conquering-fear Growth Mental Toughness Mindset optimism Work

Optimism’s Longevity Power
#1162

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→ NOT Smoking Two Packs a Day

In our last +1, we talked about some nuns and crazy stats. Recall: Nuns check in for service. They created “entry statements.” Average age of 22. Decades later, researchers analyze those entries and coded them for positive content. By age 85, an astonishing (!) 97% of the nuns whose entries c...

+1 inspired by Note: Learned Optimism

Packs:

Conquering Depression & Positive Psychology

conquering-depression Energy flourish Happiness optimism positive-psychology