Monday Reflections

A small selection of news stories fished from marginal waters on a rather rainy Monday morning.

Optimism: A new study sponsored by a British telecommunications company suggests that faith and hope, if properly channeled, can lead to great success, even in trying economic times.

Forget education, great contacts and networks or mentoring, it's the obstinacy of personality that drives people to business success.
That's the finding of a new study by O2, the mobile phone operator, to coincide with the launch of this year's OX Awards, which kick off this week to find the UK's best male, female and young entrepreneurs of the year.
The research asked 500 business people what drove them, and why. Simon Devonshire, head of O2's small business marketing, says that the research showed that the "obsessive optimism" trait is even more important in the current climate.
Only 14 per cent of those surveyed said that formal education was important to their success while fewer than a third had any formal business qualifications. ...

Requiem: In fulfillment of their mission statement to "proclaim the relevance of the living gospel of Jesus Christ in today’s world", and "...to make real the glory and presence of God in the world", the largest cathedral in Britain will be playing John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine" on the Liverpool church's bells.

An online poll of Church Times readers found that 64 per cent were against playing the song on Liverpool Cathedral’s bells.
Despite the opposition, Liverpool Cathedral said that it had considered the “sensitivities” aroused by the song’s content.

Plot: Are Somali pirates being directed by "well-placed informers" operating out of London? This is the contention of a Spanish radio station that claims to have obtained a copy of a military intelligence report issued to European navies.

These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses.
In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company.
...
"The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands," Cadena SER reported the report as saying.
This enables the more organised pirate groups to study their targets in advance, even spending several days training teams for specific hijacks. Senior pirates then join the vessel once it has been sailed close to Somalia.
Captains of attacked ships have found that pirates know everything from the layout of the vessel to its ports of call.

McPhD: Is this the future of high education, now that Ivy League credentials have fallen into such disrepute?

Despite its reputation for creating lowly-paid, insecure "McJobs", the firm has made significant investments in employee training and now runs some of the most respected in-house programmes on the high street.
Last year it was one of the first companies approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to offer practical qualifications to A Level standard.
More than 2,500 people have already signed up to the "basic shift management" scheme, which covers customer services, marketing and human resources, and a degree-equivalent management course is in the pipeline.

David Fairhurst, the chain's chief people officer, told the Financial Times that once these courses had been perfected McDonald's had ambitions to offer more academic qualifications to ambitious staff.
"One day I'd love to see us doing a PhD. I definitely think we can go as far as we can," he said, adding that the firm's awarding power already made it "a univesrity in its own right".

Gratitude: The Science Of Seeing Positive Information?

Well, here comes a personal anecdote I never expected to have relevance to any blog post I would ever write..!

I was walking back to the office with two co-workers a few weeks ago, returning from a small-scale industry function. A few glitches but overall a very rewarding afternoon, I thought. One of the co-workers is a friend of mine, and I was curious to ask my friend what he thought about a couple of the fun incidents that had spontaneously taken place; from where he was stationed maybe he had even noticed some that I missed. I had also met a lot of wonderful people, made a few good connections, as well as accomplishing the business at hand, so I was smiling wistfully as I organized my memories, preparing to start chatting with my friend.

Suddenly the pleasant experience was abruptly shattered by the other co-worker walking with us. He started going on a rant of complaints about all the petty things that had gone wrong, things that we knew were not right but that no one else would have noticed. He carefully itemized the stupid mistakes that the company and our fellow co-workers had made, and made negative and snarky remarks in general for several blocks, to the point where I was hard-pressed to get a word in edge-wise with my friend. I never did get to compare my fun memories with his; that had to wait for a later time.

As silly an experience as it was, it nevertheless stayed with me as yet another cautionary example of how negative people tend to only see the negative in their lives, and how positive people might remain positive by seeing not just the negative, but to stretch their point of view so that it can encompass the good, the positive, as well.

Is a person positive-minded from having suddenly seen the positive in their lives, or were they already positive anyway, making it easier for them to see it? If someone wasn't positive-minded, how could they become so? How can they suddenly start seeing these formerly unseen images surrounding them? I've often wondered about this chicken-and-egg question about optimism.

I thought I had the answer with my belief in the value of gratitude. Whether in prayer, or in person with friends and family, and especially with customers, I try to always show my appreciation for the blessings that come my way. By hearing myself say "Thank You" it reminds me that there is something to be thankful for, which helps me to overcome my depression, and remain positive.

Therefore I was particularly interested in this new study out of Ohio State University, which claims that positive people are positive despite seeing negative information, whereas negative people remain negative because they fail to see positive information. In other words, optimism is related to perception skills:

While depression is often linked to negative thoughts and emotions, a new study suggests the real problem may be a failure to appreciate positive experiences.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that depressed and non-depressed people were about equal in their ability to learn negative information that was presented to them.

But depressed people weren't nearly as successful at learning positive information as were their non-depressed counterparts.

"Since depression is characterized by negative thinking, it is easy to assume that depressed people learn the negative lessons of life better than non-depressed people - but that's not true," said Laren Conklin, co-author of the study and a graduate student in psychology at Ohio State.
...
This study is one of the first to be able to link clinical levels of depression to how people form attitudes when they encounter new events or information, said Daniel Strunk, co-author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State.
...
"Depressed people may have a tendency to remember the negative experiences
in a situation, but not remember the good things that happened," Conklin said. "Therapists need to be aware of that."
For example, a depressed person who is trying out a new exercise program may mention how it makes him feel sore and tired - but not consider the weight he has lost as a result of the exercise.
"Therapists might focus more on helping their depressed clients recognize and remember the positive aspects of their new experiences," Strunk said.

The lesson I learn here is an affirmation of the old saying, The Key To Finding Happiness Is To Search For The Good In Life. To which I add: "...and the key to staying happy is to feel grateful for finding it."

(Hat Tip to Henry at Why Homeschool)

Happy People Don't Watch As Much Television As Unhappy People

Is television the new opiate of the masses? An interesting study from the University of Maryland suggests that happy people don't watch nearly as much television as unhappy people:

...Examining the activity patterns of happy and less happy people in the General Social Survey (GSS) between 1975 and 2006, the authors found that happy people were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers.

In contrast, unhappy people watched significantly more television in their spare time. These results also raise questions about recent and previous time-diary data, in which television rated quite highly when people were asked to rate how they felt when they engaged in various activities in "real time" in these daily diaries.

"These conflicting data suggest that TV may provide viewers with short-run pleasure, but at the expense of long-term malaise," said Professor Robinson. ...

Well, that's a big part of where true happiness lies, isn't it; thinking and acting with an eye for the long-term, not for merely the short-term.

This next point reminded me of a comment made once upon a time by science fiction author Ray Bradbury in a retrospective interview I can vaguely recall from the dusty corners of my failing memory. A jovial Bradbury described himself not as an optimist, but as "an optimal behaviorist". He would work, he would do things, and at the end of a day he could look back and see many things accomplished, day after day. This made him feel good about himself, which in turn led to more productivity, and then more pride of accomplishment. Someone who never did anything, Bradbury said, would find it harder to feel as good about himself. That cycle of strength, built from actions, is interesting when contrasted against the cycle of passivity undertaken by the unhappy television viewers cited in the report:

The authors also noted the many other attractions associated with TV viewing in relation to other free-time activities. Viewers don't have to go anywhere, dress up (or at all), find company, plan ahead, expend energy, do any work-or even pay anything - in order to view. This becomes an unbeatable combination when added to its being quite enjoyable in the short run. This probably accounts for TV taking up more than half of Americans' free time.

This link of happiness to being purposefully engaged in meaningful actions gets further confirmation with the news that, for the unhappy individual, extra time was harming them more than a lack of time:

Unhappy people were also more likely to have unwanted extra time on their hands (51 percent) compared to very happy people (19 percent) and to feel rushed for time (35 percent vs. 23 percent). Of the two, having extra time on their hands was the bigger burden.

The whole story also brings to mind the wisdom of mothers (like mine) who used to tell their kids to shut off the television, go outside, and play. Thanks Mom..!