Using examples from his long career, a legendary basketball coach outlines the benefits of negative thinking, which helps build a realistic strategy that takes all potential obstacles into account.

How often are we urged to "look on the bright side"? From Norman Vincent Peale to the ubiquitous smiley face, optimism has become an essential part of American society. In this long-overdue book, psychologist Julie Norem offers convincing evidence that, for many people, positive thinking is an ineffective strategy -- and often an obstacle -- for successfully coping with the anxieties and pressures of modern life. Drawing on her own research and many vivid case histories, Norem provides evidence of the powerful benefits of "defensive pessimism," which has helped millions to manage anxiety and perform their best work.

Learn to create a positive work environment by accentuating the positive and illuminating the negative Illuminate argues that we can't create positive work environments without accepting the existence of the negative. Though "positive thinking" has its place in the work world, we can't ignore the negative, whether it be in the form of challenges, problems, limitations, or other negative business realities. In order to foster healthy, functional business, we have to create a culture that allows for open expression and the sharing of ideas-especially when those ideas are negative in nature. The key is that negative situations and conditions should be introduced and dealt with in a strictly positive light. The result is an organization able to look at itself honestly and stay alert to possible threats. A unique kind of business book, Illuminate is written in the style of an allegorical fable that teaches you a three-step process for confronting, examining, and fixing any problem in the office. Offers practical ways for dealing with negative situations to achieve positive outcomes Serious wisdom wrapped in a fictional format Author David Corbin operates a successful consultancy that helps industry and government maximize productivity and, therefore, profitability Corbin is also the star and co-director of the hit 2007 self-help film Pass It On; he is featured in the 2009 Napoleon Hill Foundation Film, Three Feet From Gold If your corporate culture can't deal with the negative without creating more negativity, this is the perfect guide for creating and sustaining a culture of positive change.

Designed for your desk, cubicle, or anywhere you wish to spread despair, this flipbook is filled with unaffirmations sure to uninspire. If you can dream it, you can do it-in your dreams at least. Let's face it: not everyone is destined for greatness, and no amount of blue-sky thinking will put those stars within your reach. You may think you can, only to find out you can't.

"The most important book at the borderland of psychology and politics that I have ever read."—Martin E. P. Seligman, Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at that University of Pennsylvania and author of Learned Optimism Why are we devastated by a word of criticism even when it’s mixed with lavish praise? Because our brains are wired to focus on the bad. This negativity effect explains things great and small: why countries blunder into disastrous wars, why couples divorce, why people flub job interviews, how schools fail students, why football coaches stupidly punt on fourth down. All day long, the power of bad governs people’s moods, drives marketing campaigns, and dominates news and politics. Eminent social scientist Roy F. Baumeister stumbled unexpectedly upon this fundamental aspect of human nature. To find out why financial losses mattered more to people than financial gains, Baumeister looked for situations in which good events made a bigger impact than bad ones. But his team couldn’t find any. Their research showed that bad is relentlessly stronger than good, and their paper has become one of the most-cited in the scientific literature. Our brain’s negativity bias makes evolutionary sense because it kept our ancestors alert to fatal dangers, but it distorts our perspective in today’s media environment. The steady barrage of bad news and crisismongering makes us feel helpless and leaves us needlessly fearful and angry. We ignore our many blessings, preferring to heed—and vote for—the voices telling us the world is going to hell. But once we recognize our negativity bias, the rational brain can overcome the power of bad when it’s harmful and employ that power when it’s beneficial. In fact, bad breaks and bad feelings create the most powerful incentives to become smarter and stronger. Properly understood, bad can be put to perfectly good use. As noted science journalist John Tierney and Baumeister show in this wide-ranging book, we can adopt proven strategies to avoid the pitfalls that doom relationships, careers, businesses, and nations. Instead of despairing at what’s wrong in your life and in the world, you can see how much is going right—and how to make it still better.

`An immensely challenging book' The Irish Times 'A useful self-help book, written by a psychologist and designed to increase self-awareness and a much greater understanding of self' Irish Independent An exciting guide for personal healing, growth and development, The Power of `Negative' Thinking was first published in 1996. It has sold 30,000 copies in its original format and has been translated into twelve foreign-language editions. It is a ground-breaking publication which successfully challenges many of the current ideas in psychology today by making some surprising but convincing claims.

Teacher Education and the Political is a striking book which addresses the nature and purpose of teacher education in a global context characterised by economic and political anxieties around declining productivity and social inclusion. These anxieties are manifested in recent policy developments such as the promotion of professional standards, the deregulation and marketisation of teacher education and the imposition of performance-related regimes that tie teachers’ pay to outcomes in high-stakes testing. The book assesses the implications of such policies for the work of teachers as well as for teacher educators and those undertaking initial teacher training. It is argued that these policy moves can be read as a depoliticising and de-intellectualising of teacher education. In this context, they illustrate how contemporary theory can provide a language for critiquing recent developments and imagining new trajectories for policy and practice in teacher education. Drawing on the work of theorists from Derrida and Mouffe to Agamben and Lacan, this book argues for the need to maintain a space for intellectual autonomy as a critical dimension of the ethico-political work of teachers. Together these ideas and analyses provide examples of the power of negative thinking, illustrating its capacity to unsettle comfortable truths and foreground the political nature of teacher education. Current teachers, teacher educators and school leaders will be particularly interested readers, alongside those concerned with policy in the wider educational landscape.