Growth Zone
When something good or bad happens, you tell yourself a story about why. That story matters more than you might think. Based on the research of Martin Seligman, this exercise explores your explanatory style: the patterns in how you explain events to yourself across three dimensions, permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization.
You'll read 48 short scenarios and choose the response that feels most like you. There are no right or wrong answers. Go with your first instinct rather than overthinking it. At the end, you'll see how your explanatory style breaks down and what it might mean.
Your first name (for your summary)
Question 1 of 48
Which response is more like you?
Your Results
This is a snapshot of how you tend to explain events to yourself. It is not a fixed trait. Explanatory style is learned, and it can be shifted with awareness and practice.
Your Style Across Three Dimensions
What this means (and what it doesn't)
Explanatory style is not the same as personality. It is a set of thinking habits, patterns you developed over time through experience. The good news is that thinking habits can change. Recognising your patterns is the first step.
If your results lean pessimistic in places, that is not a verdict. It means you may have some default explanations that make setbacks feel heavier or successes feel smaller than they need to. Awareness of those defaults gives you something to work with.
If you want to explore this further, Martin Seligman's book Learned Optimism is the definitive resource on this topic. It goes deeper into the research and offers practical techniques for shifting explanatory style over time.
This exercise is based on the explanatory style framework from Martin Seligman's research in positive psychology. For the full picture, his book Learned Optimism is well worth reading.
Find the bookExplanatory style is one lens. Try the other exercises in the Growth Zone to build a fuller understanding of how you're wired and what drives you.
Explore the Growth ZoneWant to talk through what you've found? A coaching conversation is a good place to figure out what to do with this kind of self-knowledge.
Book a free intro callEnter your name and email to receive an AI-generated coaching report based on your results. If you've completed other Growth Zone exercises, your report will draw connections across them.
How your data is used
Your exercise results are stored securely on Canadian servers. They are linked to your email address so that future exercise reports can reference your prior results and offer more connected insight.
The AI-generated report is produced through a single, ephemeral API call to a language model. No personal identifiers beyond your first name are included in the request. The AI provider does not store your data or use it for training.
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Questions? Reach out directly.