Life isn't perfect; ergo, blessed be the resilient for they shall endure. Optimism is a personal psychological freedom.

Ask Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Or better, ask Metropolitan Life. Met Life revamped its hiring program based on Seligman's predictors of success. Optimists only need apply.

Seligman began developing his theory about successful attitudes back in the 1960's after a series of experiments in which groups of rats in a controlled situation were repeatedly subjected to painful and inescapable electric shocks. At first the rats tried to escape the shocks, but after they learned they had no control, they gave up and took the shocks without resistance. They learned helplessness.

When these conditioned rats were then put in a different situation where they could avoid the shocks if they wanted to, they didn't even try. They had stopped assessing the situation and acted as if they were helpless even when they were not.

In a companion study, the element of control was the key. When unconditioned rats were given a warning before the shock occurred, the rats did better. They were less stressed and rested better in between shocks. As you might imagine, the group which was allowed ways to avoid the shock altogether showed the least frustration, aging and behavior change.

Seligman then asked himself. If animals can learn helplessness, can they learn hopefulness? If so, how much like rats are people in this respect?

Seligman (with others) went on to develop cognitive therapy, a process by which insights and self-discovery lead to a reshaping of a person's attitudes. Clinically depressed patients were taught how to look at situations in a different light, how to identify the control they did have over various situations and reframe their actions and responses. A major cause of depression is that people feel they have no control over their lives.