The Art & Act of Life – Work Flourishing
The core concepts or the three pillars of Positive Psychology are:
Positive Experiences | Positive Individual Traits | Positive Institutions
The middle pillar of Positive Individual Traits is an emerging science of the nature of character strengths.
Continue reading “Build your Character Muscle”
The ‘Father of Flow’, founder and co-director of the Quality of Life Research Center (QLRC) at Claremont Graduate University, and one of the founders of Positive Psychology passed away October 20, 2021. He was truly a giant in the field of psychology. His research on happiness has its roots in very adverse conditions as a survivor of WW II. He witnessed pain and suffering and emerged studying happiness!
Continue reading “Revisiting Flow”
To raise your level of Positive Genius practice 5 skills as shown by Shawn Achor in Before Happiness.
Skill 5 – Positive Inception:
Transferring your Positive Genius to Others
You can amplify the effects of your own positive mindset by helping others gain one.
Despite stark differences in personality between us, our brains our interconnected with what is known as a ‘mirror neuron’ network. These are receptors in our brain that react to observed and performed behaviors. We mimic the behaviors of others like a yawn, smile or frown. In our day to day lives we encounter contagion in the form of boredom, excitement, joy or empathy. Mindsets and perceptions can be transferred to others as we are all primed to be receptive. As Shawn Achor says, “We are hard wired for inception”!
To raise your level of Positive Genius practice 5 skills as shown by Shawn Achor in Before Happiness.
Skill 4 – Canceling the Noise:
Boosting your ‘positive signal’ by eliminating ‘negative noise’.
Signal is information that guides you to possibilities that help you reach your higher potential. Noise is any information that is negative, false or unnecessary deterring you from achieving your goals.
Skill 3 – The X Spot: finding success accelerants
Having assigned value to your goal and created a mental map to get there, the next step is to generate accelerants to get to your goal efficiently. Shawn Achor shows us how by marking the ‘X’ Spot.
The 26.2 miles set for a marathon is a highly coveted distance that is attempted by millions. Marathon runners who upon reaching the grueling 26 miles, are about to cross over into the last .2 miles, do not seem to flag, even if their legs are buckling, or every breath is a painful gasp. To the contrary, they seem to gain speed. Cursing, raising fists, or seeming to lose control of their limbs, they sprint the last stretch. “The last .2 is torture, glory, and history all rolled into one stretch”, (Runner’s World, Sep 2020).
Raise your level of Positive Genius.
Practice 5 skills as shown by Shawn Achor in Before Happiness.
Skill 2 – Mental Cartography: Mapping your success route
“Success without meaning is hollow and not worth the effort.” When you create a life of more meaning, it leads to happiness. When you are happier it leads to success. Meaning → Happiness → Success.
Raise your level of positive genius. Practice 5 skills as shown by Shawn Achor in ‘Before Happiness’.
SKILL 1 – Reality Architecture: Choosing the most valuable reality
How to see multiple realities and choose the one that leads to positive growth
Strategy 1: Recognize alternative realities
You have the ability to choose your perspective (interpretation) of the facts in front of you. Choose the view from any angle: front, side, above, or below. Each perspective offers a slightly different reality. Pick the lens that appeals to you the most and holds the greatest value.
“If you want to create positive change in your life, you first have to change your reality.” (Shawn Achor, Before Happiness, 2013)
There is so much clamor around IQ, EQ, and SI, that what we miss seeing is that this alphabet soup of all three intelligences is at our disposal to converge, draw upon, and put to optimal use.
Mihályi Csíkszentmihályi in his book Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the making of Meaning, (2004), promotes the idea that the state of ‘Flow’ is not relegated to the domain of leisure activities alone; it is in fact very much encouraged to be cultivated in everyday life, even at work.
To generate and maintain a state of Flow certain conditions have to be present. We looked at the first 6 of the 9 factors that encompass this state of consciousness, in previous two posts. Here are the last 3 factors:
Build your Psychological Capital
NPR’s ‘Hidden Brain’ podcast series recently aired Dr. Kate Sweeney of UC, Riverside, CA talk about the tips on waiting well and the benefits of getting into ‘Flow’ during painful, uncertain times. I was delighted by the serendipity of how well it aligned with the topic of my writing this month.
Watch Dr Sweeney in this 1 min video on ’How to Survive Waiting’.