Three Pathways

Victor Strecher summarizes it well. “What’s the point of high energy and living a long time if we think life sucks? When we have purpose, we want to be at our best so we can better serve that purpose. Purpose is akin to the root system of a tree, grounding and feeding the whole organism so it can flourish and thrive, no matter what the exterior conditions are.”

I highly recommend this book as a source of ideas for enhancing your leadership skills, whether you lead yourself or thousands of people. The many stories of positive outcomes will help you see that you can make a difference by making small changes. Want ideas for your small change? There are more than 70 strategies and practices clearly labeled throughout the book.

Last week my husband, our friend and I walked for three days on the Great Ocean Walk track in Victoria, Australia. Long walks make for great conversations. One of our discussions was about what makes a good life. How do we turn work, love, play, and service into good work, good love, good play, and good service?

When they want to feel more loved, valued, respected or connected, most people give away their power. They ask (or want) others to be different, which means someone else’s behavior determines how happy they will be.
What do happier people do?

Can practicing gibberish exercises, over and over again help us accept real life as it is by helping us play with nonsensical events instead of being victimized by them? Can it help us be better prepared for future surprises that can shock us? Can practicing nonsense help us to find our own meaning and purpose in life?

New research on perceiving work as a calling suggests that callings are dynamic, changing over time. This post discusses what a calling is, how it develops, and why we shouldn’t worry too much about finding it.

We put together the Happiness Habits program and tested it with groups as diverse as refugee parents in an inner-city school, charity volunteers, and professionals working in health and education. After several iterations we settled on 8 habits of happiness delivered in 8 weekly sessions: habits because it takes practice to make these actions automatic and 8 weeks to allow adequate time for positive changes to occur.

I frequently write songs as gifts for others. The best example is a lullaby I wrote for my baby niece. It makes me feel more connected and that I matter. This construct of mattering seems very similar to the feeling that we are a part of something greater than ourselves. Taken together, the research described here suggests that a sense of meaning might be embedded in the basic need of relatedness, which both contributes to and results from prosocial behaviors.

With the boom of nanotechnology, brain implants, and increasingly sophisticated computing and intelligence technologies, we might be seeing a fundamental change in the “human” part of human flourishing. My purpose here is to explore how Positive Psychology might guide the efforts of emerging technologies in a transition to human life beyond biology

With intrinsic motivation, people behave freely of their own will out of interest in the activity for its own sake. Purpose in life is about having a sense of directedness toward goals. How do intrinsic motivation and purpose relate to each other and to well-being in general?

Is it better to pursue an individual flow activity, such as taking on a new skill or hobby? Or is it better to find flow interacting with others? Dr. Charles Walker set out to answer these questions.

There are many good reasons why we should focus more on flow as a route to well-being. Five of the best ones are highlighted here along with several tips for making flow experiences more likely.

During the Martin Luther King Day of Service, thousands of people across the United States volunteered to make a difference in their communities in a variety of projects such as feeding homeless veterans, cleaning parks, and collecting clothes and toys for local children. Volunteering not only strengthens communities and those being helped, but as anyone who volunteers knows, it feels good. But a closer look at the research shows that the benefits of volunteering extend beyond a warm feeling.

According to several news reports, what Inamori did to re-engage employees and lead Japanese Airlines back into the black was to insist on compulsory philosophy sessions for all staff, washed down with free beer. I was so intrigued by this story that I wanted to delve a bit deeper. I hoped Kazuo Inamori’s business philosophy might yield some positive psychology gems like the ones I recently found with Honda.

P is for Positive Emotion, E is for Engagement, R is for Relationships, M is for Meaning, and A is for Accomplishment. Using Martin Seligman’s alphabet of well-being, we bring you a set of ideas from our authors for flourishing during the holidays and beyond.

Even though Ken Keir focused on Honda’s R&D philosophy, explaining that in recessionary times, the company goes against the tide and invests more in R&D rather than less, by the time we reached slide 5 of the presentation on the Honda strategy, vision, values, and behavior, it was pretty clear to me that here was a company founded on positive psychology principles. How did I know?

If you’ve ever struggled to explain positive psychology to a friend or colleague, you are ready to appreciate this short animation by Nick Standlea, a former research associate for Mike Csikszentmihalyi at the Quality of Life Research Center. It’s food for the eyes and ears.

Much of what I enjoy and appreciate listening to is actually in a minor key, often in a key intended to induce sadness. Why would I gravitate toward experiencing a negative emotion such as sadness?

Dr. Paul Wong opened the second day of the 7th Biennial Meaning Conference with the statement that he had worked for 10 years to bring positive psychologists to work together with existential and humanistic psychologists in order to deepen our understanding of meaning in life.

When you think of the meaning of your life, do you think of making it, searching for it, finding it, or noticing it? Do you associate meaning with times of well-being or do you believe meaning becomes apparent primarily in times of suffering?