Book SummaryPositive Intelligence, by Shirzad Chamine

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Positive Intelligence

In Positive Intelligence, Shirzad Chamine explains that all of your stress and unhappiness is the result of antagonists in your brain—harmful patterns of thinking he calls Saboteurs—that sabotage your thinking and the way you experience life. Chamine provides advice on how to connect with your higher self—your Sage—to counteract these antagonists and improve every facet of your life. Most of his examples relate to improving your performance at work as...

Positive Intelligence Summary How Your Brain Sabotages Your Happiness and Success

According to Chamine, all stress comes from harmful thought processes that interfere with our ability to behave and reason rationally. These thought processes developed as survival mechanisms, but in adulthood, they hinder our happiness and success in every aspect of our lives.

According to Chamine, our brains can either work against us or for us in promoting our happiness and success. When it works against us, it’s because the part of our brains that developed for pure survival is in charge. This part of the brain is responsible for keeping us safe from dangers to our well-being during childhood by helping us identify and avoid threats. For example, a bad grade is a threat to our academic well-being, so our survival brain might push us to study intensely to avoid that threat. However, when we become adults, the survival brain does more harm than good: It continues to exaggerate threats and push us into states of high stress over things we can overcome if we use the other part of our brain, the one that developed to help us thrive instead of just survive.

(Shortform note: [Some experts distinguish the “survival brain” from the “learning...

Positive Intelligence Summary The Sage: How to Combat Your Saboteurs

The Sage is the part of you that can control and override the Saboteurs. It embodies the part of your brain that developed to help you thrive and not just survive. The Sage accepts who you are and what your life is like in the present and views every change in circumstances as a gift.

(Shortform note: Since the term “sage” refers to someone with sound judgment

The Sage has five techniques it can use to propel your life forward in a positive way: empathy, exploration, innovation, navigation, and execution. Mastering and utilizing these skills will help you improve in all areas of your life, whether you’re participating in a team that’s trying to increase your company’s profits, confronting a conflict with your spouse, looking to add a deeper meaning and greater happiness to your life, or working on any other type of problem-solving or growth.

(Shortform note: In First Things First, Stephen Covey [identifies four...

Positive Intelligence Summary PQ: Positive Intelligence Quotient

Your overall ability to keep your Sage in charge and your Saboteurs at bay makes up your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ). Chamine rates PQ based on percentages, with 100% meaning your Sage is always in control and your brain is always working for you, while 1% would mean your brain is always working against you. Even though a score of 51% would mean your brain is working for you the majority of the time, Chamine has found that a score below 75% still means that the overall impact of your Saboteurs outweighs the impact of the Sage, suggesting that the negative impact of your Saboteurs is three times stronger than the positive impact of your Sage. He says that only 20% of people have a PQ of 75% or more.

(Shortform note: The reason the Saboteurs’ influence so heavily outweighs the Sage’s may be the result of humans’ negativity bias. Like the Saboteurs, this bias benefits us when we need to identify real threats, but it becomes harmful when it leads us to ruminate on everyday stressors. Since it’s not possible to...

Shortform Exercise: Identify and Combat Your Saboteur

Chamine explains how different Saboteurs influence your thinking and negatively affect your happiness and success. Identify one Saboteur that you see in your own thinking and create a plan for overcoming it.

First, consider the different types of Saboteurs and decide which one you see most often in your own thinking. If you feel you’re overly critical, you may be susceptible to the Controller or the Stickler. If you find yourself frequently distracted, you may be listening to the Avoider or the Restless Saboteur.