This book will help you flourish."

With such a promise as his opening gambit, I was expecting Seligman to provide some concrete ideas that would, indeed, help me to flourish. He does not. What he does do is give an overview of the work he has been doing over the past ten years, using positive psychology. I found some of this very interesting, and some of it rather self-aggrandising.

What I found interesting:
1. Drawn by the future, not driven by the past - “If the circumstances are to be blamed, the individual’s responsibility and will are minimised, if not eliminated. If, in contrast, the action emanates from character and choice, individual responsibility and free will are, at least in part, causes.” Funnily enough, I think this was pretty much how my generation was raised! Swings and roundabouts!
2. The effect of optimism and pessimism on a person’s health, and how this was tested and verified. The arguments that support why optimists are less vulnerable to disease are not some happy hippy rubbish, but rather concrete actions that optimists are more like to take in regard to their well being.
3. Fitness is more important than weight. Being thin does not necessarily mean that you are healthy and will live a long life - however, having a certain level of fitness will definitely have a positive effect on your quality and quantity of life!

Problems:
1. The work Seligman has done with the US Army to help turn trauma into growth was interesting - but not really relevant to his intended audience, and way too much detail.
2. Seligman does not explain how you can become more optimistic, or why some people are born optimistic and others pessimistic.
3. Who is the intended audience for this book? It’s very hard to tell. It’s way too academic for the pop-psychology reader, who’s looking for a quick dot-point self-help book, and it’s not academic enough for a academia!

What did I gain from reading this book? On page 16 he lists the elements of well-being, which he reiterates on page 241:
Say YES to:
more positive emotion
more positive engagement
better relationships
more meaning in life
more positive accomplishment

Seems pretty obvious to me, and it could have been said much more succinctly!