Explanatory Style

Explanatory Style is the habitual way you explain events, especially setbacks and successes, to yourself and others. Martin Seligman developed the term in his work on optimism.

In the 7 Skills, listen for whether you describe a difficulty as part of who you are, affecting everything and likely to last, or as a specific event you can work on. Notice strengths too: what you did may reveal a quality you can rely on again. The Elevate Formula gives you three pairs of filters for doing this.