Does Your Office Have a Positive Vibe?
In any line of work, there’s a good chance you do your fair of selling. You’re selling your ideas, your products, even yourself. Maybe you’re not in sales—but don’t forget to sell the great work you’re doing to your employees and others around you, too. Selling positivity internally is crucial! In 2012 I spoke at […]
Don’t Let Your Blind Spots Distort Reality
The “blind spot” is the area in the back of the eyeball that lacks receptors and thus cannot absorb the light coming into the eye. We’re not consciously aware of these gaps because our brains literally invent information that fills in our fields of vision. Similarly, in Before Happiness, I wrote that we all have […]
Is the Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full?
If you saw me on Super Soul Sunday with Oprah Winfrey, you’ll know that Oprah and I discussed the age-old question: Is the glass half-empty or half-full? Even the positive-minded media mogul admitted to wrestling with the question. “I beat myself up because sometimes I look at it and I go, It’s definitely half-empty, and […]
How to Deal with Debbie Downer
Chances are you have someone in your life who is difficult. Whether it’s a boss, neighbor or co-worker, interacting with a Debbie Downer always leaves you feeling negative or drained. It’s easy to allow these feelings to loom over your day, but when we do that, we’re actually ignoring other parts of our reality. We […]
The Best Antidote to Worry
Negative noise is everywhere in our society, but it’s also inside our heads. Worry is the loudest internal noise, and as a new parent, I understand how easy it is to let it creep in. I need to remember that worry is not love, and that in fact giving up worry is the most loving […]
It’s Your ‘Calling’ Calling. Are You Free?
The brilliant Amy Wrzesniewski from Yale University researches how people perceive their jobs. She found that the way a person sees his or her occupation—as a “calling,” as opposed to a “job”—doesn’t depend on the job title or position, but on the meaning he or she perceives in the work. But meaning is created in […]
You Have the Power… To Lead with Positivity
Imagine how happy you would be if all your interactions with others were positive and pleasant. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s actually quite easy to establish. In 2009, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, split 100 participants into groups of four and filmed them working together to solve a series […]
The Importance of Meaning Markers at Work
When I was 7, I ran away from home with my 5-year-old sister. Some 7 miles of arduous walking later, we arrived at my dad’s old fishing hole. Thankfully, 15 hours later, our parents and the local police finally found us. They hadn’t thought to look there sooner because we were so young and the […]
Make Your Message More Powerful
Being a leader, you need to understand how to influence your people. As I describe in my book Before Happiness, one of the most powerful ways to share a positive message is to recruit other people to spread it. A colleague, Adam Grant, Ph.D., of the Wharton School of Business, looked at the effect of […]
Detox Your Brain with Quiet
Neuroscientists have found that monks who spend years in quiet meditation actually grow their brains (the prefrontal cortex), like an athlete builds biceps. Don’t worry—you don’t have to spend years in a sequestered, celibate silence to experience a boost. Take just five minutes each day to watch your breath go in and out. Try to […]
Shawn Achor: A Joyful Attitude for a Long (and Happy) Existence
Health and happiness is not a chicken-or-egg quandary. Studies have determined that happiness often does lead to improved health and longevity. Among the most famous of these studies involved the diaries of 180 Catholic nuns from the School Sisters of Notre Dame, all born before 1917. As young women, they were all asked to write […]
For Genius, Stop Thinking
You know how some people claim they do their best thinking in the shower? The reason is that they are using more of their brain. Genius requires using all of our brain, even our unconscious brain. Geniuses Albert Einstein and Henri Poincaré solved the biggest problems in physics, one using math and the other using […]
