While reading Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life , by Martin Seligman, I thought it was great to see how the explanation of human behavior has changed over time.  In the earlier days of psychology, popular opinion was that people are the product of their environment.  Eventually, psychologists figured out that habits of thinking can be changed and that individuals can choose the way they think.
I didn’t realize how many competing schools of thought there were.  I also like the fact that eventually it was possible …

If you want to lead an optimistic life, learn to argue with yourself. The secret of optimism is not positive thinking. It’s non-negative thinking, according to Martin Seligman in the book Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life.

Don’t Ruminate. Don’t dwell on things that go wrong. According to Martin Seligman, in the book Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life , people who mull over bad events are called ruminators.

When something goes wrong, be careful how you explain it to yourself. According to Martin Seligman in Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life , A pessimist explains it as permanent, personal, and pervasive.

The stories we tell ourselves can limit us or enable us. In any given situation, we’re telling ourselves stories about other people, the situation and ourselves. In these stories, we can play the victim or we can be the hero.

When it comes to sleep patterns, some people really are night owls or early birds. According to John Medina in the book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School , 30 % of the population is an owl or a lark (an early bird in scientific literature.) The rest of us are called hummingbirds where some of us are more owlish and some are more larkish and some are in between.

I’m a fan of using checklists to improve results. Checklists are powerful tools for jogging your memory, reducing stress, and sharing know how. Fighter pilots use checklist effectively to eliminate task saturation, take away workload, and avoid forgetting something critical. Many businesses use checklists to train new hires as well as run everyday operations.

I’m a fan of lenses to help me get a better perspective or vantage point. If you’re looking for a job or thinking about your career, you can use Holland’s theory of career choice to help you find a better fit. John L. Holland identified 6 personality and work environment types. According to Holland, if you can match your personality type and your work environment, you can improve your success and satisfaction.

I like learning the language around a given topic to build precision and depth. When you have a language for something, it helps you think, organize, and share knowledge more effectively. The same is true for strengths. Your strengths are among your greatest assets. Simply put, they help you give your best where you have your best to give. To find, study, and explore your strengths, you should know the language of strengths.

As I’ve been studying strengths and helping people find their super powers, I’ve realized that some of the strengths literature is very specific in describing strengths versus talents. What’s the difference between a strength and a talent? Simply put, a talent is your natural pattern for thinking, feeling or doing. It represents your potential. A strength, on the other hand, represents an ability that you’ve developed into a consistent, near-perfect performance.

In this post, I’ve collected the most significant data points I could find to help answer the question “Why strengths?” Simply put, you might just be the world’s next best, you name it, but we’ll never know. Why? … Because we don’t spend enough time in our strengths. Worse, very few of us even know what our strengths are.

Thinking is probably one of the simplest things to improve that can improve you’re overall impact. At Microsoft, I’ve seen first hand the impact of skillful thinking. I like the fact that with a few techniques, people can change their game when it comes to analyzing, assessing, and responding to problems. Here’s what I’ve noticed among the smartest people I know: they control their emotions, they know what to look for, they know the right questions to ask, they know how to test assumptions, and they know how to find a way forward.

Last week, I picked up the book The Likeability Factor , by Tim Sanders. It’s a book about how the single biggest improvement you can make in your life is likability. From winning elections to having the best job … it’s all about likability, based on research. The more likeable you are, the happier your life will be.

Being different is a good thing. We all have unique skills we bring to the table. The key is finding your unique 20 percent spike. Your 20 percent spike is your super power. It’s that skill that people can count on you for. Maybe for you it’s writing. Maybe it’s figuring out the business of things. Maybe it’s designing things. When you know what your unique 20 percent spike is, you know your most powerful tool for creating impact or earning a living.

Who doesn’t want more time? We all want more time to do the things we want to do. The reality is, we have to make the most of the time we’ve got. The real problem is we spend time on the wrong things, we do things the least efficient way, or we simply let time expand to fill its container (see Parkinson’s Law.) The real key to improving time management is first changing how you think about your time and taking steps to own how you spend it.

The 20 percent spike is a distinctive strength. It’s unusually powerful. Using your 20 percent spike generates exponential results. It’s a way to amplify your impact and maximize results. My 20 percent spike is information artistry. I use this skill to create, organize, and share complex information in a simple way. At work, it helps me write more effective books. At home, it helps me learn faster and turn insights into action. From a service standpoint, it helps me unleash the best in others.

My favorite definition of power is, “the ability to act.” So personal power is the ability for you to take action. Self-belief is the energy that drives you to take action. Self-efficacy is your belief about how much you can control your own actions and the events that affect your life. One of the worst enemies of personal power is, learned helplessness — why bother if you can’t get results? That’s why self-efficacy is so important. If you have confidence in your ability to get results, you’ll take action and build momentum.

What’s your story? No, not once upon a time … what’s your story of who you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going? Your stories package and share your experience. They help you stand out if you share the right things. What are the right things? Share your unique experiences, your values, and your strengths … and even relevant flaws. Your human after all and everybody has flaws. It’s not what happens to you, but how you respond and you’re the author of your life. Choose your adventures. Write your stories with might. Lead yourself first and use your stories to guide yourself and others.

As a leader, you need to tell 3 stories: 1) your personal story, 2) a group story, and 3) the dream story. Your personal story communicates your beliefs and values. The group story helps create a shared sense of destiny. The dream story inspires people to a better future. Whether you’re a leader of a small team or large group, have these stories under your belt. If you lead a family, you can use the 3 stories too. If you just need to lead yourself, then have a personal story and dream story to remind yourself who you are and to inspire yourself to where you want to be.

You can use the 80/20 Rule to improve your life. The 80/20 rule simply means that you focus on the 20 percent of the activities that produce 80 percent of the value. This means letting go of the activities that bog you down, in favor of the activities that lift you up. To do this well means first knowing what you do well and then being able to let the rest go. Once you’re willing to let things go, you open up a lot of options.