What is Outlook? Outlook refers to how we approach the world and our lives.  In other words, it is our general attitude. Outlook affects how we perceive the world, what we think of ourselves, of the people around us, our job, our home, our friends – everything. Our outlook impacts everything we think about and do. Some people tend to be optimistic, a definite asset; others tend to be pessimistic, which can lead to difficulties. In this section, we will focus on how to have a more positive and optimistic attitude toward life.

In research covering everyting from sports to life Insurance, In Learned Optimism, Dr. Martin Seligman reported on an Attributional Style Questionnaire he developed that ranks individuals on an Optimism-Pessimism scale. He did a longitudinal study on school children (longitudinal study is a study that is done over a pre-specified period of time).

What this study found was that those who scored the highest for optimism stayed non-depressed or, if they did get depressed, they recovered rapidly. In contrast, the pessimists were most likely to get and stay depressed. Seligman also found through his research that high scores for optimism are predictive of excellence in many areas of life – from sports performance to life insurance sales performance.

This finding saved Metropolitan Life millions of dollars in personnel selection. He also found that college freshman who rose to the challenges of their first year and who did better than expected were optimists when they entered college. Those who did much worse than expected (the expectations in both groups were based on measures such as GPA, SAT and other achievement tests) entered their freshman year as pessimists.

Dr. Seligman summarizes his many studies on optimism and pessimism by stating, “over and above their talent-test scores, we repeatedly find that pessimists drop below their potential and optimists exceed it. I have come to think that the notion of potential, without the notion of optimism, has very little meaning.”₁

Overall, optimists tend to have feelings of control over their lives. Seligman states in his book that “becoming an optimist consists not of learning to be more selfish and self-assertive, or presenting yourself to others in overbearing ways, but simply of learning a set of skills about how to talk to yourself when you suffer a personal defeat.”₂

As you learn to be more optimistic, you will be learning to speak to yourself about your setbacks from a more encouraging viewpoint.  

“We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.”  ~ Old Jewish Proverb

1. Seligmnan M, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, New York, NY:  Pocket Books, 1998, 154, 207.

2. Ibid.