>> Can character strengths be taught?
>> I think some can and some can't.
So I spent a lot of my life teaching optimism and
it's clear you can increase that.
I've been very interested, can you increase integrity or
honesty or authenticity?
And I really don't know if you can.
Can you increase humor?
Yeah, probably.
Can you increase zest?
Well I don't know.
So I think if we take all the character strengths that
interest us in school, some are very changeable.
Optimism being a great example.
>> What is optimism and why are the ripples so tremendous?
>> Well, I think human beings are creatures of the future and
we're not prisoners of the past.
The question is how do we project ourselves into the future?
And I think the answer is to, the extent we project into the future with hope,
the belief that more good things will occur, that you can do something about
them, and they will pervade your life and fewer bad things will occur.
You can change bad things and when bad things happen to you they're local.