
Do you know the myth of Sisyphus? In Ancient Greece, there was a king condemned by the gods to forever push a huge boulder up a steep hill over and over again, without ever reaching the top.
It is from this myth that the expression "Sisyphean tasks" originated. They are those kinds of fruitless tasks, always repetitive and tiring types of work.
Just as Sisyphus' efforts are not rewarded and roll downhill, literally, many times our efforts are not rewarded either.
Bearing this in mind, Shirzad Chamine wrote the book "Positive Intelligence" as a guidance for the journey to reach our true potential.
But before we begin, you need to ask yourself, "if I could significantly improve something important in my life, what would it be?"
Have you thought about the answer? Then let's get started on our journey!
The book "Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential AND HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOURS" was published in 2012 by author Shirzad Chamine.
The book was released on April 2ᶮᵈ, 2012 and voted as a bestseller by The New York Times.
It consists of 224 pages, divided into 13 chapters, in which the Positive Intelligence, the intelligence that measures your mind's strength, is addressed.
Shirzad Chamine currently is the CTI's chairman, the largest coach training organization in the world. He is a renowned executive advisor, having coached hundreds of CEOs and their teams.
He has a PhD in Neuroscience, a BA in Psychology, a MS in Electrical Engineering, and a MBA from Stanford. He was also CEO of his own software company before becoming President of CTI.
He currently lives in San Francisco, California, USA, where he works as a professor at Stanford University.
Reading the book "Positive Intelligence" is indispensable for those who want to learn how to use their efforts efficiently and reach their true potential.
But, mainly, it is indicated for businessmen, entrepreneurs and leaders who want to learn how to improve the performance and happiness of their teams and themselves.
Do you have no time to read now? Then download the free PDF and read wherever and whenever you want:
According to author Shirzad Chamine, Positive Intelligence indicates how much control you are able to exert over your own mind, and measures how much your mind acts to your own benefit.
PQ stands for Positive Intelligence Quotient, which scores your Positive Intelligence from 0 to 100. In practical terms, it is the percentage of time your mind acts as your friend rather than your saboteur.
But, you may be asking yourself, "how do I calculate this percentage?"
The answer to that question is simple, and you check it out below.
Most people resist changes, even when they convince themselves that they are open to them. This rejection is a typical problem caused by Saboteurs.
The author himself warns that ignoring our Saboteurs is analogous to planting a beautiful new garden while leaving voracious snails free to roam it.
But don't worry, Chamine has created three strategies to increase Positive Intelligence and help us face the fear of change.
Shirzad Chamine claims that, despite their name, Saboteurs are not evil 100% of the time. Their development starts to make sense after you realize that they exist to ensure our survival.
Probably at some point in our childhoods we made an unconscious promise to protect ourselves from the threats of the world. The Saboteurs were the friends who helped you to keep that promise.
However, it is necessary to understand that even if the Saboteurs were the protection of childhood, not removing them in adulthood limits our mental and emotional freedom.
As explained in the book "Positive Intelligence", there are 10 types of saboteurs:
Although the Judge is everyone's main Saboteur, there are individual accomplice Saboteurs teaming up with it.
To discover yours, you need to take into account your motivation and your style.
There are three primary motivations that serve as the basis for our emotional survival needs:
There is also the style in which you manifest one of the three different motivations to satisfy your primary need for independence, acceptance, or security, which can be to:
"Who knows what is good and what is bad?"
As explained earlier, the Sage is the deepest and most intelligent part of you. And it is responsible for providing the perspective of acceptance of the facts of life that differs completely from the perspective of the Judge.
While the Judge sees life from a skeptical perspective, the Sage sees all outcomes and circumstances as gifts and opportunities.
But is the Sage the passive part of our minds? On the contrary, this is the part that actively accepts the gifts and opportunities by knowing how to transform them into concrete actions and results.
According to author Shirzad Chamine in his book "Positive Intelligence", it can achieve this transformation through its five great powers:
The three gifts technique is an exercise to train the Sage.
Think of at least three situations where this supposed bad situation could be transformed into a gift and opportunity.
Constantly practicing this exercise will strengthen the Sage's power of choice.
It is difficult to control or choose much of what happens at work and in life. However, we can determine the impact that these events have on us by choosing how to react.
Let your Sage make the choice.
Shirzad Chamine claims that we have two types of brains: the PQ and the Survivor.
Activating your PQ Brain is what will increase the power of the Sage in your head and decrease that of the Saboteurs.
Therefore, strengthening the muscles of the PQ Brain is the third important strategy to increase the PQ.
The Survivor Brain consists of the most primitive parts of the brain, and is involved in the part of triggering our response to danger, our survival instinct. The Judge rules the Survivor Brain.
The PQ Brain, on the other hand, is part of the brain that gives the Sage its perspective and its five powers.
During childhood, there is a better balance between them than when we grow up. In adulthood, our Survivor Brain is continuously exercised, rewarded, and strengthened, while the PQ Brain atrophies.
It takes us 21 days, on average, to create a habit. Therefore, author Shirzad Chamine proposes in his book, "Positive Intelligence", that over the course of 21 days we do 100 repetitions of the exercises to strengthen our PQ muscles.
But, what are the exercises?
In addition, there are two easy structures that you can use to help you remember:
Measurement is an important part of creating and maintaining positive change.
And, the quickest way to detect whether your mind is acting as friend (Sage) or as an enemy (Saboteur) is by noticing the feelings you are experiencing.
The percentage calculation should be done by the feelings generated by the Sage versus feelings generated by the Saboteur over the course of a typical day.
The lowest value to generate the positive PQ vortex is 75% and the maximum 92, because it is impossible to live without at least one negative moment. Furthermore, only 20% of people score above 75% on the PQ, which is why only 20% of individuals and teams reach their true potential.
In the book "Emotional Intelligence", Daniel Goleman clarifies that IQ is responsible for only 20% of success in life. The remaining 80% are the fruit of emotional intelligence.
Richard Koch, in his book "The 80/20 Principle", explains that not all work produces the same reward. This is a result of the 80/20 principle, which is based on the fact that 80% of the results are produced by only 20% of the efforts.
Finally, Geraldo Rufino, in "O Poder da Positividade", explores the influence of childhood and social relationships on the way we see ourselves and others, always trying to focus on the positive side.
Are you ready to put an end to the "imposter syndrome"? Put the knowledge from this summary into practice, and make sure to tell us about the results in the comments!
We will love it if you, after reading it, leave your feedback so we know what we can improve.
And if you want to learn even more about the subject, get the full version of the book by clicking on the image below: