_3 Positive Organizations

I am the voluntary leader of a religious congregation of over 400 members.  Like many churches, we have various auxiliaries and organizations to meet the needs of our membership.  These include organizations for the young men, the young women, the children, the men, the women, the single adults, the poor and needy, the unemployed, and …

I recently gave notice at the job I have held for the last eleven months.  I place special emphasis on the word “job” because the actual day-to-day work in no way resembles the type of work that I would call a career and certainly not a calling. I would like to talk about this job …

Since early November, I have been giving a series of positive-psychology-based continuing legal education (CLE) seminars across Tennessee. Starting last month, I was also advertising for and interviewing candidates for Associate Director for the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization. Like peanut-butter-and-jelly, these two endeavors mixed deliciously. In the seminar, Lawyering and the …

Over ten years ago I came across a book that caught my eye.  At the time I did not recognized the author by name and I was not familiar with his work.  The title, however, intrigued me and it ran through my head over and over before I actually acquired a copy of the book …

NOTE:  In Senia Maymin’s New Year’s Day article, she writes, “Positive Psychology is the study of positive subjective experiences, positive traits, and positive institutions.”  This article is about the later.  I will share some highlights from a recent panel discussion and conclude with some additional thoughts.      I had the pleasure of returning to the University …

I’m ecstatic! I look around and feel like positive psychology is everywhere! I’m thrilled that The Economist is exploring what role the market has for our personal happiness and how the New York Times explains the practical application of positive psychology. But then something causes me to wonder, what’s missing? Essentially, it is the more …

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Not everything works in every environment. This we know. All of us have committed a faux pas at one time or another: told the wrong joke in the wrong place, congratulated someone on a promotion they didn’t actually get, shared with a friend how much we …