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It's much easier to be optimistic if you come from a family where your parents were understanding of your failures and attributed them to external, rather than internal, factors. Families that have experienced major traumas but cope and recover from adversity also produce more optimistic offspring. Parents of optimists encourage their children to deal with setbacks in an oprtimistic way and differentially reinforce optimism and  persistence. Optimism is also related to the ability to delay gratification and forgo short-term gains in order to achieve long-term goals, probably because optimistic people can have faith that long-term goals are achievable.

What if you weren't lucky enough to come from such a family? There's still hope: "Learned Optimism" and "Authentic Happiness", both by Martin Seligman, are recommended books if you would like to become more optimistic - and thus happier. It is an easy read, intended for the layperson. Seligman has found success in teaching a form of learned optimism to people with a pessimistic explanatory style, using the ABCDE approach. ‘ABC" refers to how we react negatively to success or adversity, while "DE" refers to how we can rethink the pessimistic reaction into an optimistic one. The letters are defined as follows:

A (Adversity). Recognize when adversity hits. For die-hard pessimists, successes are a form of adversity; they say, "It won’t last," I was just lucky," or ‘Too little, too late."

B (Beliefs). Be aware of what you believe about the adversity. Check out:

10 Common Self Defeating Beliefs

	13 Forms of Distorted Thinking
	10 Common Irrational Thoughts
	5 Common Fallacies

C (Consequences). Be aware of the emotional and other consequences of your belief about that adversity.

D (Disputation). Question whether your beliefs are the only explanation. For example, ask:

· What is the evidence for my beliefs?
· What are other possible explanations for what happened?
· What are the implications of my believing this way, and do they make it worth holding on to my beliefs?
· How useful are my beliefs? Do I or others get any benefits from holding on to them, or would we benefit more if we held other beliefs?

 Check out 15 Ways to Improve your EQ for ways your thinking may be distorted

E (Energization). Be aware of the new consequences (feelings, behaviours, actions) that do or could follow from a different, more optimistic explanation or set of beliefs.

Here is an example of the ABCDE model as applied to a specific situation. The train of thought went like this:

1. I didn’t finish this chapter by the end of the Thanksgiving holiday as I promised my wife and myself I would do. (Adversity)

2. I’m an incurable procrastinator who’ll never meet my goals. (Beliefs: a personal, pervasive, and permanent explanation, which is therefore pessimistic)

3. I might as well abandon this project and settle for a life of less
ambitious projects. That way, my wife won’t be disappointed with me when I miss deadlines. (Consequence)

4. Wait a minute! Lots of writers set unrealistic deadlines. Besides, my wife and I did several things together and with her parents that had a very positive impact on our relationship. And if sticking to my schedule were so all-fired important to her, she could have insisted on doing some of those things without me. (Disputation)

5. I’ll talk about my schedule with her and get her input on whether the remainder of the schedule is important to her. If not, I’ll push my deadlines back. If so, I’ll ask her assistance and cooperation in finding ways to make more time for writing. I really don’t want to give up this project. It’s exciting, even if it is a little off-schedule. (Energization)

If you are a ruminator (someone who talks silently and continually to himself or herself in a negative vein, as in "I’m going to fail. I’m no good.. ."), then you need to learn more than just a more optimistic explanatory style. You need to learn how to jerk away from the hold that pessimistic thoughts have on you. Seligman suggests several distracting techniques in his book, including wearing a rubber band on your wrist (snap it when you start ruminating) and creating physical distractions (such as slapping the wall or doing isometric exercises) as ways to pop the pessimistic preoccupation out of your mind.

Origins and Limitations

Click here to Explore Your Belief Systems

Click here for the Six-Step Change Model for changing your thoughts and increasing your happiness