What is positive psychology and what can it contribute to life coaching?
Happiness, success and well-being are natural human aspirations, several and diverse paths have been explored for centuries to achieve them. Today, there is a science that aims to achieve our optimal functioning as human beings and formally study those things that make life worth living, that science is Positive Psychology.
Positive Psychology is a branch of Psychology that deals with the scientific study of happiness and success; It also seeks to promote the factors that are required to achieve our process of human fulfillment or "Flourishing" at the individual, social and organizational level. Its mission, as stated by Dr. Martin Seligman -its founder-, is to investigate and make available to “functional” adults the elements that allow them to achieve fuller lives and more productive careers. Although Positive Psychology was launched a little over a decade ago, it has its roots in the work of William James in the 19th century, in Humanist Psychology of the 20th century, and in the work of ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle 382 BC.
According to Positive Psychology, success, abundance and the best things in life are only achieved with effort, focus and developing individual qualities such as perseverance, discipline, gratitude, diligence, courage, optimism and passion. for what is done, among others. And it also takes up the millenary concept of Areté (Excellence) that was born in ancient Greece that held that: the strengthening of Character, the constancy of Habits and the development of Virtues were one of the most effective ways to improve the quality of life and develop the potential of men in the medium and long term.
Being happy and achieving fulfillment in life requires personal commitment and continuous work, as the following quote says:
“I always believed that a life of quality, joy, and wisdom were my human rights by birth and that they would automatically be granted to me over time. I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live - that there are specific disciplines and ways of seeing the world and that I would have to master them before I could wake up to a simple, happy and uncomplicated life ”- Dan Millman author of“ Way of a Peaceful Warrior ”.
Redefining the paradigms of Success and Happiness
For many years the Happiness formula that we have adopted in the western world is: Work hard to achieve success (financial, professional, personal, material) and then you will achieve happiness. Research assures us that it works the other way around, and that actually the most important thing for our well-being is learning to be happy in the process; what Shawn Achor –CEO of Goodthinking, Inc- calls Positivity in the Present: where the quality of the trip is as important as the destination.
By living positively, we cultivate our happiness in the present and, in addition, we considerably increase our chances of success in the different spheres of our lives. Here are some data that support this new approach and that highlight the benefits of positivity:
- The brain in a positive state raises its intelligence, creativity, energy levels and is 31% more productive than if it is in a neutral or negative state. This is known as “the happiness advantage”, since it not only makes you feel better, but it activates the learning centers of your brain and allows you to adapt to the world in a different way. It has been discovered that the best way of predicting job or school success is through attitude. The IQ can only predict it 25% of the time and the level of optimism can do it up to 75% of the time. Research shows that our happiness depends 10% on what happens in the external world and 90% on the way we process what is happening; in other words, it depends largely on us and our choices.
The contributions of Positive Psychology to Coaching and Human Development
We are living the new paradigm of Work-Life Integration where doing what one loves, applying personal strengths in our occupation, defining our life purpose and aligning our priorities have become an important component of our well-being and realization. This is why in recent years Coaching has moved from the professional field to the personal field, offering new development alternatives to achieve Success, Well-being and Happiness in the personal, work or family spheres.
There can be no professional or family growth if there is no personal growth within us. The human being is a single entity that interacts in different contexts; the type of person we are “being” 'will always manifest itself in all our acts and actions. This is why the greatest contribution of Positive Psychology to Coaching and Human Development is to provide us with scientifically proven tools that will help us become the best version of ourselves by allowing us to work on:
- Our Emotional Well-being: by learning to identify our emotions, the causes and actions that generate them, in order to manage the emotional states that bring us closer to success and happiness Our sense of Competence and Achievement: by allowing us to identify and develop our strengths, interests and passions. And most importantly, put them into practice by learning through Coaching how to generate specific plans and actions to achieve our goals, objectives and dreams.Our need for Connection: by learning to develop and maintain positive and constructive relationships at an intimate, family level, social, organizational and community Our affirmation of Autonomy:by declaring ourselves solely responsible for the quality of our life and the consequences of the decisions we make for our individual growth and development Our search for Transcendence: by allowing us to define our life mission and the way in which we want to build our legacy to carry out our unique contribution to the world.
Sources:
- FLOURISH: A visionary new understanding of Happiness and Well-Being - Martin EP Seligman.POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: A practical Guide - Bridget Grenville Cleave.THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS- Jonathan Haidt.The HAPPINESS ADVANTAGE - Shawn Achor.POSITIVITY - Barbara Fredrickson.
