Positive Psychology: Leonardo da Vinci on Focus

Monday, July 9, 2012

Leonardo da Vinci on Focus

Discipline, Focus and Consistent Effort

“You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. ...And this law is the expression of eternal justice.

He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.”

― Leonardo da Vinci

“As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.”

― Leonardo da Vinci

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules.

-- Anthoony Trollope

Positive Psychology given credence by Academia:

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Commentators on the subject Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, note that:

"The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).

At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.

At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation,tolerance, and work ethic."