His theories stem from his work with depressed patients. It can be a vicious circle, as feeling you're in a hopeless situation prevents you trying to get out of it. If there's no hope of improvement, why bother? The simple fact of seeing a way forward is the first step to enacting that. This applies in any situation, not just to moving out of depression. If people feel they have reached the pinnacle of what they can do, they will feel helpless to improve. If they feel optimistic about the chances of further development, they will take steps.

You have to recognise what you can control and what you can't.
This basic idea has been around since at least the first century. A Roman slave, Epicetus, did not accept that slavery was his only option. Most slaves did, and stayed slaves for life. Epicetus reached a level of fame as a philosopher that has lasted two millennia. One of his basic tenets was that you have to recognise what you can control and what you can't. Trying to change the unchangeable can drive you to a frenzy of frustration. Ignoring things that you could, and would like to change, prevents you improving your life.

Seligman uses this basic principle to underpin his theories of learned helplessness and learned optimism. We learn through practice, whatever it is we're practising. If we tell ourselves we're helpless and behave accordingly - not doing anything to get out of our bad patch - we discover that our doing nothing has indeed rendered us helpless. This is learned helplessness. If we tell ourselves that we have choices, think about what those choices are, then choose what to do, we discover that we can make things change. This is learned optimism.

Three P's: permanence, pervasiveness and personalisation.
Seligman cites three P's - Permanence, Pervasiveness and Personalisation, which distinguish the pessimist from the optimist. When faced with something unpalatable, the pessimists say, "This is permanent, it pervades my entire life, and it results from my personal action." This negative set of beliefs is very powerful. They feel they cannot escape, and fill themselves with self-blame and humiliation. Optimists in similar situations will say, "This won't go on forever, it doesn't affect everything, and it happened because of a mix of circumstances." For them, the setback only takes up a portion of their lives, and since they don't feel it's all their own fault, are able to think about how it happened and how they can turn things around. So, they set about putting it right, and by and large they succeed.

The power of optimism can be observed. Seligman showed it with dogs that were subjected to electric shocks. One group was tied up so they could not avoid being shocked. The other group could jump away. Later, he untied all the dogs and carried on with the shocks. 90% of the dogs that had been tied up still stayed put. They had learned to be helpless.

Pessimists would be likely to respond by a deteriorating performance.
The effect of optimism can also be shown. In 1987, in Berkeley, Olympic standard swimmers under training were given false times for their efforts, slower than the truth. This had the general effect of slowing down their next swim. Only one swam faster at the second attempt. This was Matt Biondi, who in 1988 was tipped to get seven golds. He started with a bronze, then a silver. At his standard, this was considered a disappointment, and the press took it like that. A pessimist would be likely to respond by a deteriorating performance, but Biondi had already demonstrated that pessimism was not his problem. He took the next five golds.

The optimism that leads to success is not the devil may care attitude that won't accept that anything matters. "I won't bother to follow that lead, because something will turn up." It is the active optimism that sees the setback, but interprets it as a blip, sets it aside, and moves on to better things.

Do you see failure as a fluke?
Seligman has developed a questionnaire that tests for optimism (SASQ - Seligman Attributional Style Questionnaire). The questions measure people's expectations about their ability to deal with adversity, and the answers are difficult to fake. This has been validated, by comparing the success rate of sales people with their scores on the SASQ. There is a long list of examples that demonstrate that people, who see failure as a fluke and continue undaunted, sell more than those who see success as a fluke, and don't expect it to be repeated.

One extreme example was estate agents. The extremely optimistic sold over treble the amount of the extreme pessimists. The average is a less impressive 20-40% improvement in sales, but still very significant.

Robert Dell is an example of someone who succeeded through optimism. He was a meat packer who was made redundant with half an hour's notice. He had no experience in sales whatever. At that time, Seligman had persuaded Metropolitan Life that optimism was a more important quality, and they had adopted a policy of looking for optimists to recruit for their sales force. Robert Dell was one of these. He rapidly outstripped candidates who looked better on paper. When asked about it, Dell says he is not discouraged by those who don't buy, as it's nothing personal, yet attributes the Yeses to the customer's belief in him. Dell is one of hundreds who Metropolitan Life found by using Seligman's questionnaire to find optimists.

One cause for optimism is that it's a skill that can be learned.
Just as some people deduce from setbacks that they are out of control and cannot change things, we can learn to see past mishaps as firmly in the past, learn from them and move on. Part of this is high self-esteem. If we love ourselves for what we are, we are less likely to sink into defeatist self-blame when things go wrong. One technique that Seligman suggests is to argue with yourself. Pretend that somebody else has said the things you are saying about yourself. "That person never clinches the deal. They're just not up to it." This is an attack on your self-esteem, and is likely to get you disputing that opinion. You will probably start thinking of the successes you have had to override the recent blip. This could help you to think of the negative event as just an event, not proof of your failure. If you pretend somebody else has described your situation as hopeless, you may well think of new ideas for change. Proving this imaginary person wrong might well become a motive for you. This is coping self-talk, and can get you into the creative frame of mind that will enable you to move things forward.

Ask yourself, "Am I seeing the doughnut or the hole? " Those who see the doughnut, create more doughnuts. Those who see the hole often fall in.

About the author

Dr. Mike Bagshaw is a Chartered Psychologist, has a PhD in Human Learning and Motivation and has been extensively published in business and academic literature. He has been an International Business Consultant for the last 10 years and is currently a Director at Trans4mation®.

Trans4mation® employs a combination of psychological know-how and commercial reality to create programmes that are effective, useful and relevant. Programmes are developed to provide a real impetus for people to change their attitudes and behaviours, whilst giving them the practical tools to achieve organisational objectives.

Clients include: GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Guys & St Thomas' NHS Trust and Natwest Bank.

For further information on training and coaching in the field of Emotional Intelligence, visit: Trans4mation

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