The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body and new neural pathways in your brain to support more frequent experience of what we call Positive Emotions. When you “Act Happy” you train your mind/body/heart to find Happiness, Calm, and … Read more
You Have To Knock If You Want To Enter I recently onboarded a new client who self-described as “super excited” to begin and confessed that he’s “been waiting forever for this opportunity.” Knowing that his organization has invested in coaching for many years, I was curious: “Why have you been waiting?” His reply: “I didn’t know … Read more
As the saying goes, It is better to give than to receive. But if you pour water into a leaky glass, it won’t slake your thirst. So, let’s look at the receiving end of the process. Do you have a friend who is impossible to praise? If you say, “I appreciate the work you did,” might they say, … Read more
As the American Thanksgiving holiday approaches, our thoughts turn to Giving Thanks and the emotion of Gratitude. This emotion is so foundational to the experience of all the Positive Emotions that I believe it is impossible to oversell its importance or speak of it too often. Gratitude is defined as, the quality of being warmly or deeply appreciative … Read more
The Origin Poem This second origins exercise (as mentioned in my previous post on Cultural Bio) — a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet — took far longer to complete and required that I decide which memories really define me. ‘twas a mostly positive and joyful exercise. I’ve uploaded instructions here if you’d like to try it (Word file) … Read more
I. ACT HAPPY WEEK, DAY 2: FROM JIM’S KITCHEN, HAPPINESS How do you feed your soul? Do you grab pre-packaged Pleasure from the freezer, microwave it, and eat on the run; or do you cook up your Joy from scratch using organic, locally sourced ingredients? Perhaps you have a saucepan of Gratitude constantly simmering on a … Read more
This post wraps up the sharing of lessons learned from a dumpster fire of a year… that despite obstacles and tragedy, still offered learning and opportunity. On Work and Leadership My Ego was in charge before. “I learned I am not needed in the office as much as I was going in; I can better assist … Read more
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 … Read more
What did you learn this year? In a normal year it is a common practice to look back to reflect on accomplishments before looking forward to plan for the next. Janus, the ancient Roman god of beginnings and endings, represents this duality. As this Dumpster Fire of a year blessedly draws to an end, I’m … Read more
Why Listening is Important. In this interview clip, Oprah – who made her living by listening – describes the insight that informed much of her career: The One Question Every Guest Asked.