Who knew that rebalancing the negativity bias with enough positive could have so many great results? Here is a wonderful speaker talking about great research showing so many advantages to smiling often!
Browsing Category Influence
Influencing Your Inner Movie – The Thinker & The Caveman
This is my favorite thing to teach. Being able to positively influence oneself is a critical skill for anyone increasing success, happiness, and even health.
There will be more videos teaching how to apply these concepts and tools in your life.
Stay tuned!
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Get your Caveman Passionate!
Get Your Caveman Passionate
I was honored to be interviewed for Peter Sterlacci‘s video blog last week. In his view, part of what I do is what he calls a “Personal Brand Mechanic”. I talk about the Caveman and the Thinker and how to get them both engaged both in living your personal brand, and in creating positive change in general.
Mr. Happy Man – an inspiration to us all
Bermuda’s Johnny Barnes shares his love of life and humanity with thousands every day.
Talk about positive influence!! Prepare to be inspired by this amazing man.
Positive Intelligence
Shawn Achor is a dynamic speaker and writer on this topic.
His take, through the Harvard Business Review on positive intelligence is a fantastic example of putting the science of happiness ahead of outdated conventional wisdom.
Even though he is a “competitor” of sorts I can only speak highly of everything I’ve seen him put out there.
Rock on, Shawn! You are a major player in what I call the Positive Change Revolution!
Join us at the Breakfast With The Best and Culture Con, 1/31!
Michael and will be leading workshops on how to have a ‘best company to work at’ in the morning with the Breakfast with the Best and in the afternoon at the Culture Con.
Steps to a Culture of Passion
At Breakfast With The Best we’ll be hearing from the 10 best companies to work for in NH. Plus the gathering of 300-400 will be sharing their top practices as well! Come for great ideas and fun connections.
Sponsored by Business NH Magazine
Following that we’ll move a few blocks for the Culture Con. There we’ll go deeper into how to apply the best ideas to your own organization.
As a preview I’m guest blogging on Dyn’s blog about “8 Ideas For Enhancing Change Via Positive Change“. Dyn is hosting the Culture Con.
I hope to learn and have fun with you there!!
Bob
Gratitude improves health, happiness, love-life, popularity and more
Scientific research brings us more proof of the power of gratitude!
A great blog post by Ocean Robbins…
The Neuroscience of Why Gratitude Makes Us Healthier
Optimists are realists – the studies are in!
Guest Blogger: Terry Paulson 
When I wrote “The Optimism Advantage,” I was already sold on Seligman’s work on learned optimism. But in doing preparation for the book, I found other research that indicated that optimists are realists. It makes sense. If earned optimism comes from a track record of overcoming obstacles, than you’ve had the experience of facing, analyzing and overcoming problems. To do that, you have to really understand and accept the problem. They are realists because they believe that by understanding a problem, they can cope more effectively. Here are a couple of quotes that I saved that points this out.
“The myth: Optimists are amiable (probably IQ-challenged)Pollyannas who shield themselves from bad signs and aren’t prepared when trouble strikes. Lisa Aspinwall, a University of Maryland psychologist, got $50,000 for work showing just the reverse. She found that happy, optimistic people are more willing than pessimists to read bad news about their health habits and more willing to learn about their failures on tests. They also remember bad news longer than pessimists do. Far from being unrealisticPollyannas, optimists give up sooner than pessimists when presented with unsolvable problems, Aspinwall discovered. ‘Pessimists may not want to know bad news about themselves because, unlike optimists, they don’t think there’s anything they can do about it,’ she says. Optimists may want to know where they’ve erred ‘so they can improve later—of course, they think they can improve.’ And their open approach promotes better relationships. Optimistic couples are more likely than pessimists to bring up what’s bothering them so itcan be resolved. ‘They may be more confident that they can solve things,’ Aspinwall says, ‘but when something can’t be solved, they seem to recognize that earlier.’” Marilyn Elias (USA Today, 5-16-2000)“Numerous studies show that optimists, far from protecting their fragile vision of the world,confront trouble head-on, while it is pessimists who bury their heads in the sand of denial. In a 1993 study of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, the women with an optimistic disposition were more likely to acknowledge the seriousness of the disease, experienced less distress and took more active steps to cope with it. ‘Pessimism was associated with denial and a giving up response.’ Said Charles Carver of the University of Miami, who conducted the study withMicahelScheier of Carnegie Mellon University. ‘Optimism was associated with positively reframing the situation, with women believing, ‘This is not going to go away, so let me make the best of it I can.’’Carver said.” TerenceMonmaney (LA Times, 1-5-2000, pp. A1, 15)“A study of 78 men with AIDS provided evidence that optimists live longer. Those who indicated that they had a realistic view of their disease’s course died an average of nine months sooner than those who were optimistic about postponing the end…. The central paradox of positive thinking is clear—Clinging to the belief in a positive future against reasonable odds sometimes makes it happen.” Shelley Taylor, Positive Illusions” (January 8, 2000, 4A, Sun-Sentinel, South Florida)
Dr. Terry Paulson is a psychologist, professional speaker, columnist and author of the popular books “The Optimism Advantage,” “Leadership Truths One Story at a Time,” “Making Humor Work,” and “They Shoot Managers Don’t They?”
Video that speaks to positive life-transformation
Last year I blogged about this amazing nonprofit in “Deep full-life transformation“.
This video is a compilation of client interviews we made over about 6 months. Very inspiring!
Positive change agents – principles for enjoyable success
We’ve used these principles to guide our positive change projects for years. 
These principles are keys to motivating busy people.
- Take the time to make goals clear and compelling.
- The easier it is to contribute the more people do it.
- Make starting steps doable and clear.
- Make sure people feel confident enough in their role.
- Frame goals, directions and other communication positively.
- Steady guidance at a strategic level keeps people on track and confident in success.
- Make questions specific, positive and generative.
- Keep focused on your top priority goal. Ensure that you’ve applied all the resources you need to to this goal.