DUST MOTES OF WISDOM

During my search for past writings on Optimism, I came across this article from 2012, LONG before pandemics and 2020’s turmoil – and I was struck by how much of the wisdom from a “normal” year still applies, but feels different, in a pandemic year. With minor tweaks, I share this from the archives. My ambition for this newsletter was …

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Pandemic Holiday Happiness

Cartoon faces of all different colors wearing masks for pandemic holiday happiness.

I began this blog 18 years ago, in November 2002, before social media was even a thing. I started the dance with 100 subscribers and over the first two years I slowly unpacked The 13 Principles of Happiness that were central to my work at that time. While my focus has expanded and shifted and gone global over the years, the …

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Strategies for Personal Change

COVID Brain Part 1

COVID-19-Affect-Brain

Part 1: From The Pandemic Lockdown, Day 159 How long have you been in lockdown, or working from home, or having to balance kids and job and worry about the return to school, or feeling separated from loved ones? Too long, right? I thought I was doing OK. Then two weeks ago (day 143, but who’s counting?) I had a …

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A Few Resources I’ve Been Paying Attention To

SGN, or #SomeGoodNews. Comedian John Krasinski (with occasional appearances by his wife, actress Emily Blunt), has created a wonderfully POSITIVE news network to counter all the negativity in the world. Five episodes now available (as of 30 April). An antidote to traditional panic-hype-driven news. Awesome Things. Writer Neil Pasricha, author of You Are Awesome, and 1000 Awesome Things, has started a new list …

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Curiosity Can Conquer Fear

Into the unknown

There’s a moment in the movie Frozen 2 when Queen Elsa, haunted by a mysterious voice, decides to shift from ignoring it (out of fear) to pursuing it (out of curiosity). The song, Into the Unknown (watch it here), follows her transition from “I won’t” to admitting, “there’s a part of me that wants to go, into the unknown.” We can …

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Where’s Happiness in VUCA Times?

Girl-with-open-arms outside

Pandemic and all, this is still annual Act Happy Week. Watch for five 60-second exercises, starting today. Because even if panic is the emotion of the day, you get to choose. The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body that drive Positive Emotions.  This is …

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Leadership and Workplace

How To Be Present. Now. Here.

How-To-Be-Present-Now-Here

What Does It Mean To Be Present? Remember, Leadership is not about a title; anyone can be a Leader who creates a positive experience for others. I typically end my essays with a tip like above, but today let’s start with a reminder that leaders are people who make a difference for others, usually through how they engage–what we call …

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Strategies for Personal Change

Civility, Where Art Thou?

I’ve traveled extensively in the past month, adding stamps to my passport from Netherlands, Czechia, Japan, and Singapore – and of course the US when I returned. The experience of passing through Customs and Immigration in those first four countries was fairly pleasant. “Hello, how are you? How long will you be in our country? Purpose of visit? Thank, enjoy …

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Leadership and Workplace

How Do You Choose To Be?

How-Do-You-Choose-To-Be

  A friend recently told a story to a conference crowd: A traveler climbing a hill saw another man ahead of him running and running. Then he saw the man stop. Then he began running fast again. And again, he stopped. Over and over he repeated this cycle. Eventually the traveler caught up to the running man. He asked, “Tell, …

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Strategies for Personal Change

More Tiny Wisdoms

My focus on six-word wisdoms last month generated much positive reaction, quite possibly because our attention spans have shrunk to under nine seconds – less time than it’s taken you to read this sentence aloud! Here are a few more, for fun: Ask, “In what ways might I?” You’ve been trained your entire life to focus on problems as barriers, …

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