He has discovered three kinds of happiness:
Pleasure, the attention and savouring of something, enjoyable and exciting, but the drawback is it tends not to last.
Engagement, being seriously involved in what you are doing: be it parenting, working, studying and so on. Real engagement puts people into flow, they go into the zone, mindless of time, doing and astonished at their own doing, like someone else is there with and in them. “So engaged, his body identity disappears from his consciousness.” (Seligman speaking of Mozart).
Meaning, to be in service to something larger than yourself. The strongest combination being of course, engagement plus meaning. He goes on to say health and productivity follow the same path.
Wonderful insights.
Winston Churchill is said to have observed “I’ve always been an optimist. Frankly, I never saw much use in being anything else”
Dr Martin Seligmantoo discovered a strong link between optimism and results in a detailed study with sales professionals at Met Life Insurance. The study concluded that those who ranked in the top 10% of the organization when it came to optimism outsold by 88% those in the bottom 10% of the company. That statistic may not surprise you, but think through the underlying aspects of the study. These were salespeople, and they were hired because they were optimistic people in the first place. Those in the bottom 10% still would have considered themselves to be optimists, and compared to a lot of other professions they probably were.
What does this mean for the top 10% of the salespeople in the organization? It means they were more than optimists they were super-optimists. These were people who did more than pretend. They were optimists in their core, and they carried that optimistic purpose into every sales encounter. Are you a “super-optimist” in the sales presentation? Show me, don’t tell me. I’ll see it your approach, in your energy, and in your facial posture. I’ll see it in a clear sense of purpose in your conversation. I’ll see you drive the sales process along, and I’ll see that you do not give in to negative energy
Authentic Happiness by Dr Martin Seligman
An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager.
– Bob Nelson –
