the brain that changes itself sparknotes

“If all you strive for is diminishing the bad, you’ll only attain the average and you’ll miss out entirely on the opportunity to exceed the average.”.The second mistake traditional psychology makes is focusing on those who fall only on one side of average-below it.“If we study merely what is average, we will remain merely average.”.

Tal Ben-Shahar calls this “the error of the average.” The first mistake traditional psychology makes is looking for the average behavior or outcome in order to understand human behavior.

“The typical approach to understanding human behavior has always been to look for the average behavior or outcome.”.

If you work hard, you will become successful, and once you become successful, then you’ll be happy is a broken formula.

The most successful people, in work and in life, believe that their actions have a direct effect on their outcomes.

When we reframe failure as an opportunity for growth, we are all the more likely to experience that growth (see: post-traumatic growth).

Constantly scanning the world for the positive, allows us to experience happiness, gratitude, and optimism.

We can use our brain to change how we process the world, and that in turn changes how we react to it.

Happiness is not just a mood-it’s a work ethic.

The Happiness Advantage is not the belief that we don’t need to change it is the realization that we can.

Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential.

We become more successful when we are happier and more positive, not the other way around.

Read this article at Psychology Today to learn more about how Dickinson’s poem anticipates and intersects with contemporary neuroscience, or the study of the human brain.Print | Audiobook | Get My Searchable Collection of 100+ Book Notes Learn more about Dickinson’s distinctive subject matter and style in this introduction to her collected poems from the Academy of American Poets. Learn more about Dickinson’s life and work at the website of the Dickinson Museum, which is located at Dickinson’s former home in Amherst, Massachusetts. View the poem in Dickinson’s own handwriting. Read about Emily Dickinson’s life, and find links to many of her poems, in this biographical page from the Poetry Foundation.

More “The Brain-is wider than the Sky-” Resources.

The brain that changes itself sparknotes