Who is happier: billionaires, Amish, the homeless, slumdwellers or Masai?
bsp; Responses to: “You are satisfied with your life,” ranging from complete agreement (7) to complete disagreement (1), where 4 is neutral. This is from University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Selgiman's book, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. Join 25K+ subscribers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: 10 things you need to know to be happier 8 ways that money can buy happiness How to make yourself happier in just a few…
1 min read
When is the best time to ask for a raise?
bsp; PRBMN covers new research showing we're more appreciative of help while it is happening, not after. So asking for a raise during a difficult project might make more sense than asking after it's done: Appreciation toward a helper peaks while the helper is still seen as instrumental in facilitating the completion of a goal — that is, before the goal has been completed — however, helpers expect appreciation to be highest after the goal is completed. The mismatch between…
1 min read
Is it true that “What does not kill you makes you stronger?”
many cases, yes. Individuals who went through the most awful events came out stronger than those who did not face any adversity. Via Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being: Never to be forgotten, finally, is post-traumatic growth (PTG). A substantial number of people also show intense depression and anxiety after extreme adversity, often to the level of PTSD, but then they grow. In the long run, they arrive at a higher level of psychological functioning than…
1 min read
How positive do you need to be to have a happy relationship? To have a successful company?
bsp; For a good relationship, you need five positive statements for every negative one. Good companies need three to one. Going above thirteen to one makes you lose credibility. Via Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being: “We go into companies and transcribe every word that is said in their business meetings. We have done this in sixty companies. One-third of the companies are flourishing economically, one-third are doing okay, and one-third are failing. We code each sentence…
2 minutes
What does it take to raise a child to be a genius in their chosen field?
bsp; Via Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else: Benjamin S. Bloom directed a study of 120 young men and women who were among America’s top performers in widely divergent fields—piano playing, sculpting, swimming, tennis, mathematics, and neurology. After extensive interviews with the performers and their families, his team found that their home environments shared a number of traits. Despite wide variations in the parents’ backgrounds, professions, and incomes, their homes tended to be child-oriented. Kids…
3 minutes
How can you tell which CEO’s are going to run a company into the ground?
bsp; Count the number of times they use the word "I" in their annual letter to shareholders. Via Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else: Laura Rittenhouse, an unusual type of financial analyst, counts the number of times the word "I" occurs in annual letters to shareholders from corporate CEOs, contending that this and other evidence in the letters helps predict company performance (basic finding: Egomaniacs are bad news). Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update…
1 min read
If the best art is done because of passion, not money, how can we reward creativity?
twork is of higher quality when we're not paid to create it. But is there any way to support creative work without reducing quality? The support must reinforce intrinsic motivation. Good examples are recognition, helpful feedback, and time, freedom or resources to pursue exciting ideas. Via Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else: In one of Amabile’s own projects, for example, college women were asked to make paper collages. Half the subjects were told their collages…
2 minutes
What yes/no question can likely predict whether you will be alive and happy at age 80?
s there someone in your life whom you would feel comfortable phoning at four in the morning to tell your troubles to?" Via Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being: Is there someone in your life whom you would feel comfortable phoning at four in the morning to tell your troubles to? If your answer is yes, you will likely live longer than someone whose answer is no. For George Vaillant, the Harvard psychiatrist who discovered this fact,…
1 min read
