Martin Seligman founded the science of happiness, but he'll be the first to tell you he's a pessimist!.
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, host Matt Abrahams speaks with Martin Seligman, the University of Pennsylvania psychologist who founded the field of positive psychology after a career spent studying why people give up. The author of Flourish and Authentic Happiness joins with his new book, Agency, to walk us all through the “Five Elements of Flourishing,” viz., PERMA, and how to treat the harsh voice in your head as an argument you're allowed to counter with evidence.
Together, Matt and Martin talk about:
• The five-letter acronym you can use to imagine your life as ‘dials’ that you can tune separately
• The two-step way to strip your inner critic of its authority.
• The specific alternative to "Congratulations, you deserve it" that deepens relationships.
• A critic who once compared him to a storybook wizard ended their correspondence thanking him for one sentence
• The three ingredients that size up a person's power over the future.(HINT: Raw talent is not among them!)
Between a prize-winning swan, a wizard from Oz, and a champagne bottle that waited a decade, one lesson keeps surfacing: the inner argument is yours to win. It's a warm, contemplative half an hour from someone who's had sixty years to think about it.
About The Guest
Martin Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Positive Psychology Center, and a former president of the American Psychological Association. Widely regarded as the founder of positive psychology, he is the author of more than thirty books, including Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness, and Flourish; his latest is Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress.
About Matt
Matt Abrahams is a leading communication expert, lecturer in organizational behavior at Stanford GSB, and host of the award-winning Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast. He has coached presenters at TED, the World Economic Forum, and the UN Secretary-General's office, and his online talks have garnered millions of views worldwide. He is the author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter and Speaking Up without Freaking Out, two bestselling guides to confident, spontaneous communication.
Key Quotes
• "When you lie in bed at night, you're not thinking about how to go from minus eight to minus three. You're thinking about how to go from plus three to plus eight in life." - Martin Seligman (02:09)
• "What you think is not gospel. It's often whispered to you by someone whose mission in life was to make you miserable." - Martin Seligman (05:48)
• "Those voices that are telling you you're an impostor have nothing to do with reality. - Martin Seligman (09:19)
• “Well, I think the most important thing from the pathological point of view is to be attentive to the voices that are talking to you, particularly talking about your deficits and the hopelessness of the future and becoming good at marshalling evidence against them.” - Martin Seligman (10:37)
• "Owning and befriending your critics is important." - Martin Seligman (14:10)
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:57 The PERMA-Dial For A Good Life
05:21 A Voice You Should Ignore
09:19 Talk Back to Your Impostor Syndrome
11:22 3 Levers For a Better Future
12:21 Winning Over Your Worst Critics
14:26 Matt's 3 Questions
21:41 Conclusion
Relevant Links:
Martin Seligman: https://www.fastersmarter.io/guests/martin-seligman/
Martin’s Book: https://bookplease.ai/seligman/agency?podcast=think-fast-talk-smart
Episode References:
Ep. 179. Laurie Santos: Finding Positive in Negative Emotions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zipVxYd1HKE / https://www.fastersmarter.io/179-communication-happiness-wellbeing-finding-positive-in-negative-emotions/
Ep. 181. Why Happiness is a Direction, Not a Destination:with Arthur Brooks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FRf4b-BB4Q / https://www.fastersmarter.io/181-why-happiness-is-a-direction-not-a-destination-communication-happiness-wellbeing/
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