The Practical Benefits of Outrageous Optimism

If you ask me, everything is pretty frickin' great these days.

Your life and my life are both going to continue to increase in awesomeness over time.

We are likely to have exceptional fortune and health throughout our days, we'll help to change some lives for the better, our kids are going to turn out loving and great, and we will die with a broad smile across our rugged and weather-worn faces somewhere around the age of a hundred and twenty two.

Oh sure, there will be the odd problem and catastrophe along the way, but they will just serve as recharging jolts to keep us from getting complacent. More problems to solve, more learning to do, and deeper happiness to attain.

On top of that, the human race is bound for an ever-better fate, ironing out most of its current problems and most of the problems that follow in the future, ending up at a tantalizing Star Trek Utopia.

Those are pretty controversial statements to make these days, yet strangely enough the general theme tends to become true, for the few people who are crazy enough to believe it.

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Why Optimists Usually Win: How to 'Hypnotize' Yourself for Success

By Rob Waugh / Source: Daily Mail UK

Thinking positively about something really might make it happen, psychologists say.

Simply anticipating something good can gear up hidden circuits in the brain to drive you towards it.

Thinking about a happy outcome plants a 'suggestion' in the mind, in a similar way to a hypnotist.

Two psychologists at the University of Victoria, New Zeland said: 'Once we anticipate a specific outcome will occur, our subsequent thoughts and behaviors will actually help to bring that outcome to fruition.'

It can't work magic, obviously, but researchers say effects of suggestion are more powerful than people think and can change behaviours and even outcomes.

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The World in 2025 -- 8 Amazing Predictions for the Next 10 Years

By Peter Diamandis, Author of 

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think

In 2025, in accordance with Moore's Law, we'll see an acceleration in the rate of change as we move closer to a world of true abundance. Here are eight areas where we'll see extraordinary transformation in the next decade:

1. A $1,000 Human Brain

In 2025, $1,000 should buy you a computer able to calculate at 10^16 cycles per second (10,000 trillion cycles per second), the equivalent processing speed of the human brain.

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An Optimist's Tour of the Future

Review by Cory Doctorow / Source: Boing Boing

Mark Stevenson's An Optimist's Tour of the Future is a hilarious and inspiring romp through some of the most promising directions in technology -- from permaculture success stories in Australia who are beating the drought and sequestering carbon to nanotechnology boosters who are showing off successful prototypes for effective energy generation, water filtration and desalination, and other cool and world-changing applications.

Stevenson, a former standup comedian, writes with enormous warmth and humor, and he fast-talks his way into the presence of some hard-to-reach scientists and theorists who really represent the cutting edge of their fields, from Eric Drexler to Nick Bostrom. Stevenson does an admirable job of presenting these findings in a lay-friendly way without eliding too much important detail.

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Top 10 Happiness Books to Improve Your Mood

The year is still young, and as we think of making and breaking those inevitable New Year's resolutions, we cannot help but ask: Why can't we just be happy?

It is the perfect time to look at new books on happiness and the psychology of happiness and see what developments have emerged in the last few years.

While the positive psychology movement began in the late 1990s with Martin E.P. Seligman as its recognized guru, self-help sections in bookstores have recently seen increased demand for books on happiness.

In 2009, Psychology Today described what it saw as a "happiness frenzy" with "4,000 books published in 2008 while a mere 50 books were published on the topic in 2000."

The books listed below should satisfy readers wanting to know how they can become happier right now. "Rather than pursue the state of happiness," write the authors ofThe Creativity Cure, "we believe in pursuing habits that give rise to happiness, thereby creating more opportunities for experiencing moments of joy, inspiration, purpose and meaning."

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Forget Positive Thinking, Try Positive Action

The self-help industry is mired in ideas about positive thinking that are at best ineffective and at worst destructive. If you want to be more confident or successful, says Richard Wiseman, the best thing to do is act the part

By Richard Wiseman / Source: The Guardian

For years self-help gurus have preached the same simple mantra: if you want to improve your life then you need to change how you think. Force yourself to have positive thoughts and you will become happier. Visualise your dream self and you will enjoy increased success. Think like a millionaire and you will magically grow rich. In principle, this idea sounds perfectly reasonable. However, in practice it often proves ineffective.

Take visualisation. Hundreds of self-improvement books encourage readers to close their eyes and imagine their perfect selves; to see themselves in a huge office at the top of the corporate ladder, or sipping a cocktail as they feel the warm Caribbean sand between their toes. Unfortunately, research suggests this technique does not work.

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Sell Your Cleverness and Purchase Bewilderment

By Dr. Wayne Dyer, Creator of Wishes Fulfilled

Having a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing sounds easy until you think about how much conditioning has taken place in your life, and how many of your current thoughts were influenced by geography, the religious beliefs of your ancestors, the color of your skin, the shape of your eyes, the political orientation of your parents, your size, your gender, the schools that were selected for you, and the vocation of your great-grandparents, to list only some possibilities.

You showed up here as a tiny infant capable of an infinite number of potentialities. Many of your choices remain unexplored because of a hopefully well-intentioned conditioning program designed to make you fit the culture of your caretakers. You probably had next to no opportunity to disagree with the cultural and societal arrangements made for your life.

There may have been some adults who encouraged you to have an open mind, but if you’re honest with yourself, you know that your philosophy of life, your religious beliefs, your manner of dress, and your language are a function of what your tribe (and its heritage) determined was right for you. If you made any fuss about going against this preordained conditioning, you probably heard even stronger voices insisting that you get back in line and do things the way they have "always been done." Fitting in superseded having a mind that was open to new ideas.

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How to Turn a Negative Ending into a Positive Beginning

By Tony Mase / Source: The Personal Power Course

Whether you've just gotten divorced, just gotten laid off, just had to move out of your hometown for the first time, or suffered something equally as earth-shattering, you know endings are sad and scary. In fact, there are few things in life that actually cause more sadness than an ending.

Why?

Because you're losing a part of yourself. Even if your marriage wasn't a good one, it defined part of who you are. Or, the job you went to every day made you feel "whole". Or, simply growing up and living in your hometown helped to shape who you are. When things like that come to an end, you can feel empty and disconnected from the rest of the world. You may feel like you don't even know who you are anymore!

So, how do you get through it and start anew?

You need to focus on the positives - and, specifically, feel grateful for them.

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The Brain Rejects Negative Thoughts

By James Gallagher / Source: BBC News

One reason optimists retain a positive outlook even in the face of evidence to the contrary has been discovered, say researchers.

A study, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggests the brain is very good at processing good news about the future.

However, in some people, anything negative is practically ignored - with them retaining a positive world view.

The authors said optimism did have important health benefits.

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The Future Is Better Than You Think

Source: Abundance: The Book

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing—fast.

In Abundance, space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials, synthetic biology, and many other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous two hundred years.

We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp.

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