Is a book - here are some excerpts
MENTAL MAGNETISM
No person is what they think they are; but what they think, they are.
Magnets have their molecules aligned - pulling power is “unity of purpose.”
Law of Mental Magnetism always attracts my true wants - not my wishes, whims or passing fancies.
What I give my dominant attention to will be mine through the Law of Mental Magnetism - constructive thought patterns, or otherwise...
Positive energy creates!
Creative mind; power centre; transcendental power; universal mind; unlimited wisdom - it does exist and it has unlimited power. God, within.
Desire is the seed of fulfilment.
ASK: -
Is this a wise or unwise act?
Will it contribute to my basic needs?
Will it harm me or someone else?
What is the total price I must pay?
Is it in harmony with the Laws of the Universe, as I understand them?
Am I willing and able to pay this price and accept the consequences?
GOAL ACTION PLAN
1. This is my goal (brief description; sketch; picture)
2. Why do I want this? How will I benefit?
3. What actions can I take to reach my goal?
4. Where can I get competent assistance and guidance?
5. Date I began my plan!
6. Date of intended completion!
7. I will revise and review on the following dates!
8. What should I do first? Second? (check when started or finished)
A. _____________________________Started [] Finished []
B. _____________________________Started [] Finished []
C. _____________________________Started [] Finished []
9. I keep the following positive mental attitude during this period (a positive statement concerning how I feel I must act whilst I am working on my goal).
TRAIN RIDE
1. Decide to get on the train - choose goal
2. Best route to destination - plan
3. Buy a ticket - be willing to pay the price.
4. Get on the train - take action
Stick with the journey!
GOAL SCREENING
1. Do I really want this for myself (rather than something I think I should, or ought to, do)?
2. Is it right according to my value system?
3. Do I believe it is possible for me?
4. Will I be a better person when I accomplish it?
5. Can I visualize it in all respects?
6. Do I have complete faith that the Creative Intelligence within me will assist me in bringing forth my desire?
YES TO ALL, then:
a) Clear statement of my goal - subconscious needs specificity!
b) Have an exact date to begin my program.
c) Have an exact date by which I want to achieve my goal.
d) Have a written plan of action
e) Have a schedule to periodically review my plans for changes and updates.
e) Carry a brief statement of my goal written on a small card in my pocket or wallet. Look at it often each day. Have pictures of goal as well.
f) Concentrate on one specific desire or challenge at a time.
g) Make up a positive affirmation or statement about my goal.
h) I always go to sleep picturing my goal.
POSITIVE HABIT CONDITIONING
STEP 1
A. What negative habit do I desire to replace?
B. What positive habit or attitude will I develop to replace it?
C. What actions will I take to replace my negative habit?
D. What is the easiest and most logical way to do this?
STEP 2
A. I visualize myself as having already succeeded in changing that habit! I see myself as already enjoying the benefits of my new positive habit!
B. I use a positive affirmation along with my visualization!
STEP 3
I observe my actions and note each time I do other than what I have promised myself I will do. Rather than condemn or scold myself, I simply make a non-judgmental observation and allow myself to make the necessary correction.
STEP 4
keep a record for at least 21 days.
I am causing my automatic mechanism to respond in the way I have conditioned myself to FEEL and ACT!
I monitor my responses and habit patterns and: -
1. Remove anything in my life that is not working for my good.
2. See what is working for me and continue to program that into my subconscious.
3. Add new things that I find desirable that are likely to work for me.
Keep uppermost in my mind: -
A. I recognize and accept the fact that I have a non-constructive habit - I place no value or judgement on myself.
B. Before I change the habit, I weigh the potential benefits against the price I will have to pay for replacing it.
C. I understand and acknowledge that no amount of willpower is of any use unless I really want to replace the habit.
D. I am convinced that such change will bring about the gratification of a particular need or desire.
E. Up until now, I have only done what my level of awareness has enabled me to do. There is no blame, guilt, or condemnation associated with that - there is simply the opportunity for increased awareness.
I KEEP MY DOMINANT THOUGHTS FOCUSED ON WHAT I WANT......
THE GENIE RESPONDS TO: -
Verbalizing:
Feeling & Emotion:
85% faster through the use of music or voice recordings.
Visualization:
My Blueprint of Destiny - coloured pictures of places and things I want to go and do!
Ask for the WISDOM to bring these things into my life, rather than ask for the actual thing. Cooperate with Creative Intelligence and it's law of creation.
PHASES OF THE MIND
SUPERCONSCIOUS: -
The Creative Mind
Intelligence
Absolute Ideas
Transcendental Power
Universal Mind
CONSCIOUS: -
The source of truth is within me.
Limited to the 5 senses - no such limit on other parts.
By itself, limiting.
SUBCONSCIOUS: -
Train to perform any act consciously chosen.
Great Pianist has built patterns of perfection in their subconscious.
Stores memories and releases them under automatic control.
Automatic creative mechanism that can solve my problems and change my life much faster than my conscious mind.
Not limited - can be trained and retrained.
Picture what I want and my subconscious will learn from errors, change my course, correct itself and bring me right on target - like a torpedo programmed to seek out an objective! Automatically!
KEY is for me to picture the END RESULT; FEEL that I can get what I want; FEEL it is already mine; FEEL the enjoyment and excitement NOW! Get the deep down inside feeling that ALREADY WORKING!
My conscious mind must be compelled to be my ally in this!
Give thanks for what is on the way - acknowledge that it will come when I ask.
REACH FOR A HIGHER DIMENSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS THAN THAT IN WHICH I HAVE BEEN OPERATING!
DIARY of GUILT
Guilt is a construct of humankind – it does not exist outside of us. Keep a record: -
1. Every time I try to make someone else feel guilty.
2. Every time someone tries to make me feel guilty.
3. Every time I try to make myself feel guilty.
Then reduce these occurrences and set myself free from this behaviour. Guilt has no place in the present – creating the future of my choice.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Vitality Journey
It is all about: - Foods I eat; thoughts I think; exercises I do.
THOUGHTS I THINK:
This is the time in my life to love and be loved.
To focus on the things I want and think positive thoughts.
I have all the material at my fingertips - I just need to USE it!
EXERCISE:
Walking briskly helps - but I have to walk an hour a day at a very brisk pace. I'll have to try another approach!
5BX program
or
Squat/Lunge/Push-up/Hop Scotch/Baby Burpee/Squat Jump
EATING PROPERLY:
Avoid Bread/Pasta/Cereal/Pizza/Rice
Lean, Green, Marine (seafood) - LOL
THOUGHTS I THINK:
This is the time in my life to love and be loved.
To focus on the things I want and think positive thoughts.
I have all the material at my fingertips - I just need to USE it!
EXERCISE:
Walking briskly helps - but I have to walk an hour a day at a very brisk pace. I'll have to try another approach!
5BX program
or
Squat/Lunge/Push-up/Hop Scotch/Baby Burpee/Squat Jump
EATING PROPERLY:
Avoid Bread/Pasta/Cereal/Pizza/Rice
Lean, Green, Marine (seafood) - LOL
Sunday, 24 October 2010
WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING 7 YEARS FROM NOW?
By Augie Mendoza
(I have seen this in different guises before - this one really hits the nail on the head!)
"I graduated from Brazosport High School in Freeport, Texas in May 1972. Not dressed in white (honours), but I graduated.
That summer like the previous summer, I worked as a longshoreman loading corn, flour and corn sacks weighing 50 to 140 lbs. and 900 lbs. caustic soda drums on freight ships bound to other countries at nearby Brazos Harbor and Dow Chemical A2 Dock.
This was one of the better paying jobs in the area. It was grueling, hard, heavy work, but I loved it at the time. My father had been doing this job most of his life since it paid well.
Fall came around and I had already decided that I did not want to make my living as a longshoreman. Work was inconsistent and when it was there it only went to the ones with the most seniority, unless there was too much. There was very little opportunity for a better job when you got older.
I had always heard that a college education would get you a better job and decided to find out. So I went to nearby Brazosport College and set up an appointment with a counsellor.
I got to his office at the appointed time and he asked me what work or profession interested me the most. I had taken Auto Mechanics I & II during my junior and senior years in high school and asked him if Brazosport College had an auto mechanics program.
He said "no." I asked him if they had anything similar to it. He said that the Machine Tools Technology program was very similar and described the program to me.
I was very interested and asked him how long it would take if I went full time. He said "4 years." I said I couldn't go full time since I am working (whenever work was available).
I asked how long would it take if I go part time? He said "7 years." I was shocked. I said, "Man, I'll be old then, I'll be 25 years old. I don't think so!"
He asked me, "what did you say you did for a living right now?"
I told him again that I worked as a longshoreman throwing bags and manhandling drums. Then he bent over his desk and looked me square in the eye and asked me the most significant words I will never forget in my life:
"IF YOU DON'T TAKE ANY CLASSES, WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING 7 YEARS FROM NOW?"
These words hit me like a ton of bricks! I sheepishly told him that I would be doing the same thing.
I signed up for the classes right then and there.
These prophetic words have inspired many of my relatives and friends.
The sun will rise and fall 365 days a year. What you choose to do in between will determine many things in your life.
This story alone has inspired relatives and friends to realize an age-old truth: Time will go on regardless and it waits on nobody.
Years later, I told a co-worker this story. He got inspired enough that he went on and got 3 different degrees in computers in less than 7 years! He said afterwards, "7 years ago I would've been saying to myself, 'If only I had the opportunity.'"
TIME WILL PASS REGARDLESS!"
I love this story!
I am born and I will die - that is a given.
Will I live or not?
Ahhh, that is up to me.
(I have seen this in different guises before - this one really hits the nail on the head!)
"I graduated from Brazosport High School in Freeport, Texas in May 1972. Not dressed in white (honours), but I graduated.
That summer like the previous summer, I worked as a longshoreman loading corn, flour and corn sacks weighing 50 to 140 lbs. and 900 lbs. caustic soda drums on freight ships bound to other countries at nearby Brazos Harbor and Dow Chemical A2 Dock.
This was one of the better paying jobs in the area. It was grueling, hard, heavy work, but I loved it at the time. My father had been doing this job most of his life since it paid well.
Fall came around and I had already decided that I did not want to make my living as a longshoreman. Work was inconsistent and when it was there it only went to the ones with the most seniority, unless there was too much. There was very little opportunity for a better job when you got older.
I had always heard that a college education would get you a better job and decided to find out. So I went to nearby Brazosport College and set up an appointment with a counsellor.
I got to his office at the appointed time and he asked me what work or profession interested me the most. I had taken Auto Mechanics I & II during my junior and senior years in high school and asked him if Brazosport College had an auto mechanics program.
He said "no." I asked him if they had anything similar to it. He said that the Machine Tools Technology program was very similar and described the program to me.
I was very interested and asked him how long it would take if I went full time. He said "4 years." I said I couldn't go full time since I am working (whenever work was available).
I asked how long would it take if I go part time? He said "7 years." I was shocked. I said, "Man, I'll be old then, I'll be 25 years old. I don't think so!"
He asked me, "what did you say you did for a living right now?"
I told him again that I worked as a longshoreman throwing bags and manhandling drums. Then he bent over his desk and looked me square in the eye and asked me the most significant words I will never forget in my life:
"IF YOU DON'T TAKE ANY CLASSES, WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING 7 YEARS FROM NOW?"
These words hit me like a ton of bricks! I sheepishly told him that I would be doing the same thing.
I signed up for the classes right then and there.
These prophetic words have inspired many of my relatives and friends.
The sun will rise and fall 365 days a year. What you choose to do in between will determine many things in your life.
This story alone has inspired relatives and friends to realize an age-old truth: Time will go on regardless and it waits on nobody.
Years later, I told a co-worker this story. He got inspired enough that he went on and got 3 different degrees in computers in less than 7 years! He said afterwards, "7 years ago I would've been saying to myself, 'If only I had the opportunity.'"
TIME WILL PASS REGARDLESS!"
I love this story!
I am born and I will die - that is a given.
Will I live or not?
Ahhh, that is up to me.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Creed to live by too
Why set my goals by what other people deem important?
It is almost certainly true, that only I know, what is best for me.
I'll be careful about taking for granted the things closest to my heart.
Rather, I'll acknowledge them, as my life - without them, life has no meaning.
It is almost certainly true, that only I know, what is best for me.
I'll be careful about taking for granted the things closest to my heart.
Rather, I'll acknowledge them, as my life - without them, life has no meaning.
Creed to live by
Why potentially undermine my worth
by comparing myself with others?
It is, perhaps, because I am different
that I can find I am special.
by comparing myself with others?
It is, perhaps, because I am different
that I can find I am special.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Lite n Easy
Is a program for healthy eating in Australia where the food is pre-packaged and delivered weekly - to eat over the entire week.
I'm on it now - I might not be getting Liter, but I think I'm getting Easier......
Jokes aside, I am loving it! I was not eating properly before and the program is nutritionally balanced. I am feeling FANTASTIC!
Exercising every day as well. Great things are happening!
I have taken steps to feel, function, and, as a consequence look good - as I shine!
I'm on it now - I might not be getting Liter, but I think I'm getting Easier......
Jokes aside, I am loving it! I was not eating properly before and the program is nutritionally balanced. I am feeling FANTASTIC!
Exercising every day as well. Great things are happening!
I have taken steps to feel, function, and, as a consequence look good - as I shine!
Martin Seligman interviewed in Australia
Martin Seligman joins The 7.30 Report - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Broadcast: 07/12/2009
Reporter: Kerry O'Brien
Dr Martin Seligman is one of the world's most high profile psychologists. His work on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression and the power of optimism has featured in many of his books, and led to ground-breaking research work in classrooms around the world. Dr Seligman is in Australia at the moment, where he was attending the Science of the Mind forum with the Dalai Lama and another conference on the mind and it’s potential. He spoke with Kerry O’Brien in Sydney.
KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Martin Seligman is one of the world's most high profile psychologists. His work on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression and the power of optimism is featured in many books and led more recently to ground breaking programs, attacking depression and anxiety, in classrooms around the globe.
But his most thorough school experiment has been at Geelong Grammar where for six months he worked and lived with the teaching staff, preparing them for a new style of teaching. That experiment is still under review, but in the meantime the US Army - concerned about an increasingly high rate of suicides, depression and post combat trauma within its own ranks - has been impressed enough with the results at Geelong Grammar so far that it has commissioned Dr Seligman to apply the same principles to its 1.1 million soldiers.
Martin Seligman, director of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center, is in Australia at the moment and I interviewed him in Sydney where he was attending a major global conference with the Dalai Lama on the mind and its potential.
Martin Seligman, what are the fundamentals of the program that you've been implementing at Geelong Grammar?
DR MARTIN SELIGMAN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Positive psychology and positive education have four basic pillars - one is the teaching of more positive emotion, the second is the tuition toward more meaning and purpose in life, the third is what we know about better human relationships, and the fourth is very allied to traditional schools, which is accomplishment, achievement and mastery.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And this is woven through the whole kind of culture of the teaching.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Yes, well the idea behind it, if you think about what you most want for your children, what Australian parents say is happiness, fulfilment, civility, balance.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Independence from our purse.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: When I asked them, "well, what do schools teach your children?" They say discipline, conformity, literacy - there's no overlap between the two (happiness, fulfilment, civility, balance). So the idea of positive education is to take the things that we have been finding out about building positive emotion and life satisfaction and merging that with the traditional education towards successful work place.
KERRY O'BRIEN: So what have been the results so far?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Well there are 21 replications across the world in which we taught teachers the skills of positive psychology, and then we measure how the students do on anxiety, depression and life satisfaction. So the results are that teaching teachers in large groups these principles - you first learn them as a teacher in your own life and then you learn to apply them to your students - lowers the probability of anxiety, depression, conduct problems, raises satisfaction as kids go through it. Geelong Grammar is a special case that is we got the whole school.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And you're convinced that this will represent a genuine revolution in education? That this is actually going to spread and be effective?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: No, I'm an eternal sceptic and pessimist so I'm not convinced of anything. I'll tell you what I believe as opposed to being convinced; I think there's quite good evidence that when children learn the skills of positive psychology, in tandem with learning the usual workplace skills, that they, as they go through puberty they have less depression, less anxiety, and they do better in school.
And I think as a parent that's what we want. So the hope is, and there's reason to think it's catching on, that more and more schools and government will say, hey, wait a minute, let's train our teachers not only in how to teach mathematics but how to teach good relationships.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Now this is pretty much the same program, the fundamentals of the same program that you're applying with the US military, starting with, I think, 150 crusty sergeants.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: First I started with a group of 30 drill sergeants, then 60, and then when I just left there was 150 drill sergeants - who are nothing like your image of drill sergeants. They are not these grizzled, mean, obsessive compulsive people, rather they're, for the most part, 40-year-old black and Hispanic kids - they were kids - who were war heroes; who worked their way up through three deployments and their highest characteristic is capacity to love and be loved.
So we've been basically changing the curriculum, not too much from Geelong Grammar. We thought we'd have to do it about combat and they said no, you know, when our guys fall apart, they've got cell phones and right before battle they call their wife in St Louis and have a fight about the kids. And that's so a lot of our examples...
KERRY O'BRIEN: So modern warfare is a dramatically different...
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Modern warfare is you're arguing with your spouse about the dishwasher right before. So yeah, it's really quite astonishing it never happened before. And a lot of the demoralisation is about stuff that's happening with the family on the home front in addition...
KERRY O'BRIEN: So your life is no longer in the capsule of at home or at war or on leave. It's all with you wherever you are.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Right so it's not like being on a whaling ship anymore in which you don't see your spouse for three years. So as a result of that, to my surprise, as I carefully measure teachers' reaction to this course, they like this course. The Geelong Grammar teachers gave it about a 4.7 out of five. The drill sergeants give it a five out of five.
Just before I came here Kerry, I was walking down to do instructions and this drill sergeant came to me and said, you know, Dr Seligman, I really have to thank you. If I had had this training three years ago I wouldn't be divorced now. From the subjective reaction of this, we've done about 200 drill sergeants now, they believe they can teach it, they like the material and they think it's just what their soldiers need for resilience.
KERRY O'BRIEN: But this could be a five year exercise before a very clear picture emerges?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Well they've got a different time scale. So what they're doing is they're, we're, now simulcasting it to different forts. So there'll be training probably at the University of Pennsylvania once a month of 150 with my faculty and then this will be simulcasting to several forts.
And at the same time, if we do 150 drill sergeants we identify the 15 best ones and then we bring them back and make them master trainers. So my hope is, just as with Geelong Grammar, that we just, get rid of the University of Pennsylvania very soon - they'll have this within a couple of years.
KERRY O'BRIEN: You've been at the forefront of psychology for decades now; an outrageously general question I know, but in your assessment are people happier today than they were 30 years ago, or to put it differently, is there more or less happiness?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: There's more depression now than there was 30 years ago. So that's really quite a negative, particularly among young people. There are 52 nations in which there's been a measure of happiness at time one and then time two. Forty-six of them went up slightly in happiness, nothing like the way, say, the economics have gone up. Five have gone down, and one nation has stayed flat. That nation is Australia.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Any rationales developed as to why?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: No, but I think it's a paradox. Last time I looked at your economic statistics, Australia had had something like 14 or 15 years of unbroken growth.
KERRY O'BRIEN: It's about 17 now.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: If one has a belief that happiness is a function of economic growth, people in Australia ought to be out there leading the world, but they're not. That tells us that notions of happiness and depression are something much more than material growth.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And having said all that, and having written a book on learned optimism, you're actually a pessimist yourself.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Yes.
KERRY O'BRIEN: After all these years...
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Actually I'm better than I was the last time you interviewed me.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well, so after all these years how well have you been able to train yourself to see the glass half full rather than half empty?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: I measure these things in myself and I actually take my own medicine. So the way I work on exercises, like creating more meaning in life or strengths, is I first do it on myself and if it works then I give it to my wife and seven children. And if it works with them, then I start to do controlled experiments on it.
So I actually use these techniques on myself and, you know, I know you're not my age yet, but I think there's really hope even for people in their 60s, that I am, to my surprise, a noticeably happier person than I was and it's by using techniques that have been developed psychologically.
KERRY O'BRIEN: I think that's a very good note to end the interview on.
Martin Seligman, thanks very much for talking with us.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: You're welcome Kerry. Good to see you again.
Broadcast: 07/12/2009
Reporter: Kerry O'Brien
Dr Martin Seligman is one of the world's most high profile psychologists. His work on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression and the power of optimism has featured in many of his books, and led to ground-breaking research work in classrooms around the world. Dr Seligman is in Australia at the moment, where he was attending the Science of the Mind forum with the Dalai Lama and another conference on the mind and it’s potential. He spoke with Kerry O’Brien in Sydney.
KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Martin Seligman is one of the world's most high profile psychologists. His work on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression and the power of optimism is featured in many books and led more recently to ground breaking programs, attacking depression and anxiety, in classrooms around the globe.
But his most thorough school experiment has been at Geelong Grammar where for six months he worked and lived with the teaching staff, preparing them for a new style of teaching. That experiment is still under review, but in the meantime the US Army - concerned about an increasingly high rate of suicides, depression and post combat trauma within its own ranks - has been impressed enough with the results at Geelong Grammar so far that it has commissioned Dr Seligman to apply the same principles to its 1.1 million soldiers.
Martin Seligman, director of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center, is in Australia at the moment and I interviewed him in Sydney where he was attending a major global conference with the Dalai Lama on the mind and its potential.
Martin Seligman, what are the fundamentals of the program that you've been implementing at Geelong Grammar?
DR MARTIN SELIGMAN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Positive psychology and positive education have four basic pillars - one is the teaching of more positive emotion, the second is the tuition toward more meaning and purpose in life, the third is what we know about better human relationships, and the fourth is very allied to traditional schools, which is accomplishment, achievement and mastery.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And this is woven through the whole kind of culture of the teaching.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Yes, well the idea behind it, if you think about what you most want for your children, what Australian parents say is happiness, fulfilment, civility, balance.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Independence from our purse.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: When I asked them, "well, what do schools teach your children?" They say discipline, conformity, literacy - there's no overlap between the two (happiness, fulfilment, civility, balance). So the idea of positive education is to take the things that we have been finding out about building positive emotion and life satisfaction and merging that with the traditional education towards successful work place.
KERRY O'BRIEN: So what have been the results so far?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Well there are 21 replications across the world in which we taught teachers the skills of positive psychology, and then we measure how the students do on anxiety, depression and life satisfaction. So the results are that teaching teachers in large groups these principles - you first learn them as a teacher in your own life and then you learn to apply them to your students - lowers the probability of anxiety, depression, conduct problems, raises satisfaction as kids go through it. Geelong Grammar is a special case that is we got the whole school.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And you're convinced that this will represent a genuine revolution in education? That this is actually going to spread and be effective?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: No, I'm an eternal sceptic and pessimist so I'm not convinced of anything. I'll tell you what I believe as opposed to being convinced; I think there's quite good evidence that when children learn the skills of positive psychology, in tandem with learning the usual workplace skills, that they, as they go through puberty they have less depression, less anxiety, and they do better in school.
And I think as a parent that's what we want. So the hope is, and there's reason to think it's catching on, that more and more schools and government will say, hey, wait a minute, let's train our teachers not only in how to teach mathematics but how to teach good relationships.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Now this is pretty much the same program, the fundamentals of the same program that you're applying with the US military, starting with, I think, 150 crusty sergeants.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: First I started with a group of 30 drill sergeants, then 60, and then when I just left there was 150 drill sergeants - who are nothing like your image of drill sergeants. They are not these grizzled, mean, obsessive compulsive people, rather they're, for the most part, 40-year-old black and Hispanic kids - they were kids - who were war heroes; who worked their way up through three deployments and their highest characteristic is capacity to love and be loved.
So we've been basically changing the curriculum, not too much from Geelong Grammar. We thought we'd have to do it about combat and they said no, you know, when our guys fall apart, they've got cell phones and right before battle they call their wife in St Louis and have a fight about the kids. And that's so a lot of our examples...
KERRY O'BRIEN: So modern warfare is a dramatically different...
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Modern warfare is you're arguing with your spouse about the dishwasher right before. So yeah, it's really quite astonishing it never happened before. And a lot of the demoralisation is about stuff that's happening with the family on the home front in addition...
KERRY O'BRIEN: So your life is no longer in the capsule of at home or at war or on leave. It's all with you wherever you are.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Right so it's not like being on a whaling ship anymore in which you don't see your spouse for three years. So as a result of that, to my surprise, as I carefully measure teachers' reaction to this course, they like this course. The Geelong Grammar teachers gave it about a 4.7 out of five. The drill sergeants give it a five out of five.
Just before I came here Kerry, I was walking down to do instructions and this drill sergeant came to me and said, you know, Dr Seligman, I really have to thank you. If I had had this training three years ago I wouldn't be divorced now. From the subjective reaction of this, we've done about 200 drill sergeants now, they believe they can teach it, they like the material and they think it's just what their soldiers need for resilience.
KERRY O'BRIEN: But this could be a five year exercise before a very clear picture emerges?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Well they've got a different time scale. So what they're doing is they're, we're, now simulcasting it to different forts. So there'll be training probably at the University of Pennsylvania once a month of 150 with my faculty and then this will be simulcasting to several forts.
And at the same time, if we do 150 drill sergeants we identify the 15 best ones and then we bring them back and make them master trainers. So my hope is, just as with Geelong Grammar, that we just, get rid of the University of Pennsylvania very soon - they'll have this within a couple of years.
KERRY O'BRIEN: You've been at the forefront of psychology for decades now; an outrageously general question I know, but in your assessment are people happier today than they were 30 years ago, or to put it differently, is there more or less happiness?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: There's more depression now than there was 30 years ago. So that's really quite a negative, particularly among young people. There are 52 nations in which there's been a measure of happiness at time one and then time two. Forty-six of them went up slightly in happiness, nothing like the way, say, the economics have gone up. Five have gone down, and one nation has stayed flat. That nation is Australia.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Any rationales developed as to why?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: No, but I think it's a paradox. Last time I looked at your economic statistics, Australia had had something like 14 or 15 years of unbroken growth.
KERRY O'BRIEN: It's about 17 now.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: If one has a belief that happiness is a function of economic growth, people in Australia ought to be out there leading the world, but they're not. That tells us that notions of happiness and depression are something much more than material growth.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And having said all that, and having written a book on learned optimism, you're actually a pessimist yourself.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Yes.
KERRY O'BRIEN: After all these years...
MARTIN SELIGMAN: Actually I'm better than I was the last time you interviewed me.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well, so after all these years how well have you been able to train yourself to see the glass half full rather than half empty?
MARTIN SELIGMAN: I measure these things in myself and I actually take my own medicine. So the way I work on exercises, like creating more meaning in life or strengths, is I first do it on myself and if it works then I give it to my wife and seven children. And if it works with them, then I start to do controlled experiments on it.
So I actually use these techniques on myself and, you know, I know you're not my age yet, but I think there's really hope even for people in their 60s, that I am, to my surprise, a noticeably happier person than I was and it's by using techniques that have been developed psychologically.
KERRY O'BRIEN: I think that's a very good note to end the interview on.
Martin Seligman, thanks very much for talking with us.
MARTIN SELIGMAN: You're welcome Kerry. Good to see you again.
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