Motivation

On top of the fit between a positive activity and a particular person, new research by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Rene Dickerhoof, Julia Boehm, and Kennon Sheldon suggests there are two other important factors which influence your chances of increasing your happiness when you carry out an evidence-based happiness exercise: your motivation and the effort you invest.

Research shows we are more likely to sustain positive change by changing actions and patterns than by improving external circumstances. But that assumes we do them. Stephen Schueller is the first researcher to develop a structure for recommending positive interventions based on a person’s preferences for prior interventions.

Do you ever wish you were more creative? New research has shown that adults can be primed to become more creative simply by being asked to think like children.  There…

Netta Weinstein and Richard Ryan at the University of Rochester have recently published research on the impact of doing things for others.
Their research looked at the link between well-being and autonomous helping on the one hand versus controlled helping on the other hand.

This academic year, I met a student who I will call James.  He is one of several high school and college student clients that were referred to me with new…

When my daughter, Lauren, chose her college, she picked-up on an aspect that didn’t jump out at me. I guess I was the only one surprised at how that played-out four years later and it made me curious: how does a college foster a service culture that stands out to a high school student?

Let’s assume you were just promoted into a management job. You know that you got the promotion because you were an excellent performer on your previous assignment, but it used your technical skills. You are worried that you do not have all the skills you need to be an excellent manager. How do you go about learning them? Where’s the best place to start?

Dear Student,
Don’t worry when people tell you it will be hard to find a job. What the doom-and-gloom folks don’t understand is that they have something as contagious as the H1N1 virus– anxiety. Like the flu, they are probably “carriers” without even realizing it. You can innoculate yourself.

What do you use your strengths in service of? Linking strengths to purpose may help you refine and clarify your own sense of purpose in life. It may also expand your sense of what your strengths can be used for. It may also increase the priority you place on strengths development and strength-related goals, and thus it may increase goal-striving and achievement.

Are there positive ways to combat employee negativity? Are you interested in improving personal and organizational performance and at the same time personal and organizational well-being? Over the long Christmas…

How do we choose our goals? How do we decide how to spend our time and energy and where to direct our attention? These are the topics covered in another…

Article roughly 925 words.  Reading time 4 minutes. Three years ago, “the most wonderful time of the year” became a much dreaded time of year for me. New family dynamics…

It’s that time of year again, and we’re not talking about the holidays. It’s the time of year when most employees have their annual performance review. If you manage employees…

Failure does not breed success when it comes to the brain, according to MIT scientist Earl Miller whose study of monkeys is cited in the Boston Globe article of August…

There’s a difference between short-term and long-term happiness.  Newly published research shows that when you are working out in aerobics class or doing your taxes, you may not enjoy the…

“Thank You” sign Did you know that over two thirds of happy experiences are relationship oriented? Gratitude is the feeling we experience when we perceive ourselves as the recipient of…

Are your employees eager to work for you each and every day? Few leaders can answer this question with a confident yes. Here’s a tip to help you be one of them. This technique enables you to adjust your practices so they support the leader you want to be and helps you reinforce the behaviors you want to see. Equally important, it keeps you accountable for the behaviors you are encouraging in others.

Carl, 14, can text with his cellphone in his pocket and keep up with friends on Facebook. However, he won’t look adults in the eye even though he insists he’s ‘a man’. … As children have become healthier and our society has become more complex, the age of puberty has fallen while the age of psychosocial maturity has risen.

The voices in our heads can be real buzz-kills. “I’m not whatever enough.” I should be (doing) X, I should be (doing) Y, I should be (doing) Z. Some call this voice “the gremlin” or saboteur. Whatever you call it, these voices have harmful effects. Our own, self-deprecating mind chatter can become our reality.