Positive Psychology: Do Your Best

Monday, August 15, 2022

Do Your Best

I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona.

It says: 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.'

I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have.

When he gives everything that is in him to do the job he has before him.

That is all you can ask of him and that is what I have tried to do.

- Harry S. Truman

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."