Training your Brain
06.18.2009
Shawn Achor > View profile
Training your Brain
While becoming happier is no simple feat, research has identified steps you can take to raise your baseline level of happiness. To get you started, we've listed five exercises below that take advantage of your brain's neuroplasticity—its ability to change and grow in response to your actions. That means every time you do one of these tasks, you're actually training your brain to be happier. We have also included a brief summary of the supporting research so you can learn about the specific benefits of each exercise.
1. Three Gratitudes
Before you go to bed each night, write down three things that you're grateful for. Try to do this every night for at least a week. The more specific your list is, the better. For instance, if you are grateful for your children, write down something specific they did today that made you smile.
The Benefit: Research shows that people who keep a daily gratitude list feel better about their lives as a whole and feel more optimistic about the coming week. Compared to control groups, they exercise more frequently and report fewer physical complaints. They also experience more positive emotions, fewer negative emotions, and exhibit more helpful behavior towards friends and neighbors (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).
2. Maximizing Strengths
First, go here to take the VIA Strengths survey and find out what your Signature Strengths are. Now try to use one of these strengths in a new and different way every day for a week. Try to shape a normally boring daily task into one that uses your strength in a creative way.
The Benefit: In a 2005 nationwide study, people who completed this task every day for just one week showed increased levels of happiness and decreased symptoms of depression directly after the experiment AND a full 6 months later (Seligman, et al., 2005). Students who use their signature strengths have higher GPAs and fewer absences (Harter, 1998). Employees who have the opportunity to use their top strengths at work every day report greater job satisfaction and 38% higher productivity levels (Gallup, 2005).
3. Journaling
A few times in the coming week, take 20 minutes to write in your journal about a recent positive experience. Try to be as specific as you can about the experience and why it made you happy.
The Benefit: People who write about positive experiences at least 3 times a week report enhanced positive mood and a 50% drop in doctors visits up to three months later (Burton & King, 2004). Also, couples who journal about their relationship are significantly more likely than control group couples to still be together 3 months later (Slatcher & Pennebaker, 2006).
4. Creating a Habit
Think of a positive action you would like to incorporate into your daily routine and start doing it once a day. It could be meditation, yoga, writing an email to a far away friend, or reading 20 pages of a book. Even if you enjoy the activity, it will be difficult to maintain at first; introducing any new task requires activation energy that is often hard to come by. But the more days in a row you complete the action, the more you will be training the neural pathways in your brain and the easier it will become. Eventually, your brain will have adapted accordingly and your positive action will have turned into second nature.
5. Mindfulness
Every day, take 5 minutes to sit quietly and watch your breath go in and out. Try to clear your mind of other thoughts and just think about your breathing.
The Benefit: People who meditate on a regular basis experience less stress, enjoy more energy, and bounce back from illness faster. They report higher levels of happiness and lower levels of depression. They also have a decreased risk of heart disease and a higher tolerance for pain (Shapiro, Schwartz & Santerre, 2005).
The Biggest Problem With U.S. Health Care -- And How To Fix It!
06.17.2009
Ken Dychtwald > View profileWhile most of the current healthcare debate has focused on how to cover the tens of millions of uninsured Americans and who should pay (granted, these are critically important issues), after thirty-five years working at the intersection of gerontology and healthcare, I'm convinced that we have the WRONG healthcare system for our aging nation. If your train is headed in the wrong direction, it doesn't help to give everyone a seat. And, since the U.S. currently spends nearly twice as much per capita on healthcare as all the other modernized nations, while our national life expectancy ranks a humiliating 33rd worldwide, it's not that we throw too little money at the problem, but that we may not be spending it in the wisest ways. > View article
If You're a Lame Duck, Quack Like One
06.15.2009
Marshall Goldsmith > View profile
For many leaders, it is hard to make the announcement that they will soon be passing the baton of leadership to their successor. The common fear is that if they declare their intentions too soon, they will become lame ducks. No one wants that to happen.
Almost every leader goes through this inner dialogue as part of the challenge of "slowing down." This fear, which often results in postponing the announcement about succession until the last minute, inhibits what could have been a much smoother transition. > View article
Even in tough times, bosses can still say ‘yes’
06.15.2009
Chester Elton > View profile
Cash isn't always the best way to reward workers — especially these days, when it isn't available anyway.
The Kaplan Thaler Group rented an ice cream truck and parked it behind its offices for a day. Employees got any treat they wanted that day. "Nothing brings a company together like free food," says Linda Kaplan Thaler, the company's chief executive officer. She's one of many CEOs who have been finding creative ways to reward staffs that have been working harder in more trying times than ever before. > View article
Companies Willing to Take Risks in a Recession
06.15.2009
Ram Charan > View profileSome global companies, from Fiat to Oracle to Toys 'R' Us, are taking advantage of the downturn by making gutsy moves that are likely to pay off later. > View article
Social Networks That Boost Your Business
06.15.2009
Daniel Burrus > View profile
Most people are familiar with the term "Web 2.0," which refers to a second generation of web development and design that focuses on fostering social networking via the web. Innovative companies are beginning to embrace Web 2.0 as a way to enhance communication, information sharing, and collaboration, thereby allowing them to work smarter rather than harder. The business use of Web 2.0 represents a new trend called "Business 2.0." Aside from being the name of a defunct magazine, Business 2.0 is about using the new web-based social networking applications (many of which were originally created for personal use) in a way that fosters teamwork, customer touches, and internal and external collaboration in a low-cost seamless way.
Unfortunately, many businesses feel that Web 2.0 and social networking are for the younger generation and a waste of time when used by employees. However, once you understand the power of these applications and how to use them in your company, you'll quickly find that they can be invaluable tools to boost your bottom line.
> View article
Capitals of Capital
06.15.2009
Ian Bremmer > View profile
Recently, China’s government announced that it wants Shanghai to become a global financial capital equal to London and New York by 2020. An ambitious goal, which may or may not be achieved. But China’s aspirations also underscore a worrisome and increasingly pervasive new reality: political officials are making decisions normally left to markets on a scale not seen in decades.
Like the financial crisis itself, this trend is now global. Political leaders in dozens of countries are making decisions that will drive the performance of local (and global) markets for the foreseeable future. > View article
Chris Berman ready to call the U.S. Open
06.15.2009
Chris Berman > View profile
It was a prospective culture clash so jarring it echoed from the anarchic blogosphere to genteel Augusta National:
Chris Berman at the Masters? Boomer in Butler Cabin? The Swami amid the azaleas?
Traditionalists were all but saying prayers in Amen Corner as ESPN prepared to televise the Masters for the first time last year.
False alarm. ESPN used Mike Tirico, not Berman, to host, a role Tirico also filled this April.
The network said then and Berman reiterated last week that the decision primarily was schedule-driven, because he was preparing to host the NFL Draft. He said it is a perennial conflict, which is why he never covered the Masters even before ESPN secured rights to televise it.
Still, the notion he did not belong there even in ESPN's very limited hosting role at the Masters stung, because he considers himself a knowledgeable, passionate golf announcer, fan and player. > View article
"Who's Happy and Why?"
06.13.2009
Ken Dychtwald > View profile
There is an avalanche of new research in the areas of success and happiness. Perhaps the leading light in this field is Dr. Martin Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania research psychologist, who has boiled down true happiness to three components: pleasure (things that feel good), involvement (being immersed in things like family, work, and hobbies), and meaning (using personal strengths to serve a larger end).
> View articleKurzweil subject of new documentary: Transcendent man
06.12.2009
Ray Kurzweil > View profile
Inventor Ray Kurzweil, 61, has received numerous honors for his work in artificial intelligence. Over the past decade, he has focused on sharing his ideas of the future in books like The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near, and in talks he has given around the world. Kurzweil is the subject of a new documentary called Transcendent Man.
In the film Transcendent Man, Ray Kurzweil says he decided he would be an inventor when he was five. He began pursing that dream at a young age, appearing on a television quiz show at 16, performing a piano piece that was composed by one of his inventions. > View article
Beethoven at heart of music festival
06.10.2009
Boris Brott > View profile
There are a several major music and art events this weekend in our fair cty, one of them being the first in a series of three concerts in the Brott Summer Music Festival.
It takes place at St. Christopher’s Anglican Church on Saturday (June 13) at 7:30 p. m. where guest artist, with maestro Boris Brott and the National Academy Orchestra, will be the talented 14-year-old pianist Jan Lisiecki.
The concert will include Beethoven’s "Third Piano Concerto"and the Second Symphony for, as Brott explains, “We’ve gained a loyal following with our Beethoven concerts in Burlington. He’s the perfect composer to feature in a mini-festival.” > View article
Economic Summit Looks at Top Trends Expected to Shape Business in Future
06.08.2009
James Canton > View profile
It was not long ago that computers were slow, had black and white screens, and still cost upwards of $2,400. Only a few years ago, the notion of uploading a presentation from an eight gigawatt USB drive was inconceivable.
Yet the technological advancements of today are nothing compared with what’s to come, said global futurist James Canton, speaking to about 150 people at the Woodbury University auditorium during Burbank’s Economic Summit and Business Expo on May 28. > View article
The Adventurer
06.08.2009
Aron Ralston > View profileRalston, a student of mechanical engineering and French at Carnegie Mellon University, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. At Carnegie Mellon, he served as a Resident Assistant, studied abroad, and was an active intramural sports participant. He left his job as a mechanical engineer with Intel in 2002 to climb all of Colorado's "fourteeners", or peaks over 14,000 feet high during the winter season.
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