HBPM Core Principles

While traditional branches of psychology have focused on mental illness and psychopathology, positive psychology takes a different approach. Rather than asking “what’s wrong with people,” positive psychology asks, “What’s right with people?” Positive psychology focuses on helping people build a life filled with meaning, hope, and resilience. It is about helping people meet their needs to move from surviving to flourishing. Positive psychology asks:

• How can people live a good life?
• How can people improve their lives?
• How can people find joy in their lives?
• How can people capitalize on their strengths rather than trying to “fix” their weaknesses?

To help people who are sad, anxious, and stressed, psychologists have gained a better understanding of well-being and have developed effective treatments for many psychological problems. The problem with this approach is that it primarily focuses on the negative aspects of health and well-being. This approach attempts to “cure” or “fix” people rather than focusing on enhancing the positives in life. On the other hand, positive psychology practitioners focus on helping people discover and explore their strengths, potentials, and talents to engender hope and joy and promote positive functioning. 

People can learn to replace catastrophic or negative thought patterns with a future-focused, hope-based perspective. By concentrating on goals and possibilities in the near and far future, they gain a sense of direction and purpose, which counteracts the despair of the past and present. A “stay in the present” orientation can prolong feelings of sadness. This future orientation helps to instill optimism, hope, and joy that life can improve.

Your Transcendent Goal (TG) is a life-defining goal that allows you to transcend all your other needs. Abraham Maslow suggested that when people are working toward transcendence, they will experience peak experiences. For “Transcenders,” peak experiences and plateau experiences become the most essential things in life, the high spots, the validators of life, and the most precious aspect of life. Examples of TGs include curing cancer, discovering extraterrestrial life, and purchasing a professional sports team. As you can see, you will probably never meet these goals, but they can keep you motivated! 

What is the most critical thing in your life? 

Facts About Transcendent Goals:

· TG’s will probably never be met.

· TG's vary based on age.

· TG's vary based on cultural experience.

· TG's are purpose-based.

· TG's are all-encompassing.

· TG's allow people to have peak and plateau experiences.

· TG's must be supported by meeting lower-level needs.

· TG’s allow you to begin at the endpoint and work backwards.

Psychologist Carl Jung famously stated that the most significant problems of life are not solved. They are not “fixed.” Problems are outgrown or transcended. They are overcome through psychological growth, a shift in mindset, and hope about the future. This "outgrowing" involves experiencing the problem differently, seeing problems as opportunities, integrating new aspects of yourself, and ultimately gaining a new perspective that allows you to transcend the issue. 

Jung believed that the most significant problems in life are not meant to be solved in a linear, problem-solving way. He argued that they are inherent in the human condition and should be looked at from a positive rather than a negative perspective. Jung claimed that instead of seeking a definitive solution or fix, people should approach these problems as positive opportunities for growth and integration. This involves setting transcendent goals, finding unique ways to interact with the world, and having an empowering mindset. When people can do this, they ultimately find a new perspective that allows them to transcend the problem’s power over them.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow created the hierarchy of needs, which represents the various needs and desires that make up and motivate the totality of human behavior. The hierarchy is usually shown as a pyramid; the lowest levels are basic human necessities before rising to the peak of self-actualization. However, Maslow later amended his hierarchy to include an even higher realm that people can reach called Self-Transcendence. He referred to this as the actual peak of the pyramid. Maslow summed it up as follows:

Transcendence refers to the highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, where people behave and relate, as ends rather than means, to themselves, significant others, human beings in general, other species, nature, and the cosmos. This is where people have plateau experiences as they create something for the world. 

Self-transcended people engage in transcendent goals to help others. This could mean using their self-actualized talent to improve the lives of others, produce new value, or create goods for people in the world. This brings happiness, growth, and beauty to someone or a group of people in the world.

For Maslow, a plateau experience is a sustained state of exquisite hope, serene joy, and startling peacefulness. This type of experience requires growth (mental, emotional, physical, social, psychological, or spiritual). Maslow described these plateau experiences as a higher state of consciousness that can be cultivated through conscious focus and effort. Unlike the fleeting nature of peak experiences associated with self-actualization, plateau experiences are gentler and long-lasting, representing constant illumination, growth, or awakening. 

You’ve probably heard people say, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude or how high you can go.” What exactly does it mean? Your attitude is the avenue by which you experience happiness, cultivate hope, and achieve your dreams. You determine the quality of your attitude by how you respond to an event. It would help to remember that you could not sustain a positive attitude through any quick-fix motivational technique. You should keep the following facts in mind as you begin to connect your actions with a good attitude:

• You form an attitude based on the conscious growth choices you make.
• Your key to maintaining a healthy and hopeful attitude is based on how many happy and pleasurable growth experiences you have. 
• You have control over your attitude. You determine your attitude through the actions and behaviors in which you engage.
• You can take control of the growth-based power of your attitude to perform at your best and maximize your happiness and fulfillment.
• Your attitude represents how you see and respond to events, situations, people, and yourself. 
• You are the architect of joy in your life. You decide the positivity of the events in your life. You decide if your attitude is positive or negative. 
• Your attitude consists of your tendencies to behave in a particular way in certain situations. Please remember that hope, peace, and happiness are parts of your attitude.