I wanted to introduce you to the book I referenced in the weekly message. It’s called Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine. I’m excited that a few of you have started reading and listening to it. I’m reading it for the third time and am taking a class on philosophy. It’s becoming one of the most influential books I have read in a long time.
Main Idea:
We all have voices that are in our heads. Some are positive, most are negative. Chamine calls these negative voices “saboteurs,” and they are very loud and very prominent in all our lives. They affect our mindsets, our decisions, and our outlook.
Everyone has the “JUDGE” saboteur in their head. This voice judges everything and everyone, including yourself.
- “You’re not good enough for that job.”
- “You can’t accomplish that.”
- “He will never treat you like you deserve.”
- You will never get out of debt.”
- “She will never be able to do that.”
There are nine other saboteurs that are out there, most of us have 1-2 of them as a prominent part of our life, and are seriously holding us back from what we are capable of.
The positive voice in our head is called the “SAGE.” The sage has powers like empathy, generosity, innovation, and curiosity. The sage voice directly counteracts the saboteur voice.
Chamine calls the ratio of positive to negative voices in our head the Positive Intelligence Quotient, or PQ for short. There is TONS of research to show two specific things about PQ:
- The higher our PQ, the better. At a PQ score of 75 and above, we really start to untap our potential in relationships, work, health, and joy.
- PQ is like a mental muscle. We can increase the PQ muscle, like a bicep muscle, through certain exercises.
If this idea sounds interesting to you, I would encourage you to do the following
- Determine if your PQ score needs work. Take the 3-minute assessment here
- Determine who your main saboteurs are
- Watch this short TED talk on Positive Intelligence
If you think you could benefit from the material, check out the book!
