How can you make good decisions when you’re creating something new? If you’re like us, you may find that the WRAP model (from the book Decisive) provides a great roadmap: Widen your options, Reality-test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, and Prepare to be wrong. Diving into Decisiveness At Happy Brain Science, we’re developing an read more…
Do you have a kindness habit? Solid science suggests you should—not just for others’ sake, but for your own sake, as well. Your success, health, and even longevity will get a boost if you develop a kindness habit. Fortunately, author and speaker Allison Clarke helps us do just that. The world may not feel very read more…
What happens to your brain when you hear or read the word “negotiation?” If you are anything like me (and many people), your heart rate quickens, and you might get a pit in your stomach or feel your shoulders tense up. Why would I even review a book on negotiating—specifically, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating read more…
Science is clear: for most of us, most of the time, the quality of our relationships is the key to our happiness and well-being. Could relationships also be the key to business success? I’m going to summarize and review The Connector’s Way by Patrick Galvin, but to do that well, I need to tell you read more…
I loved The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and have been looking forward to his next book, Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity. I must admit being disappointed, but only slightly. I still recommend this book and it’s “productivity hacks”. Smarter Faster Better is well written, with great stories which bring quality science read more…
Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change by Shawn Achor is the follow-on to his international best seller, The Happiness Advantage. I recently reviewed The Upside of Your Dark Side, by Robert Biswas-Deiner and Todd Kashdan, and shared that I had mixed feelings about it. This book read more…
It’s with very mixed feelings that I write this review of The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self–Not Just Your “Good” Self–Drives Success and Fulfillment; and the authors would undoubtedly approve! This is a bold and thought-provoking book by Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Deiner (who, in the interest of full disclosure, read more…
Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals focuses on goals: how we set them, how we reach them, and why we fail. This book is an extension of social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson’s popular Harvard Business Review blog post: Nine Things Successful People Do Differently. The things people do to succeed are: 1. Be specific 2. Seize the read more…
Martin Seligman helped launch positive psychology. In Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, he redefines it. The book is important, and strongly recommended for anyone interested in deeply understanding positive psychology. That said, it is not a self-help book, and may not be terribly useful to the average person who wants to be flourishing more in life! read more…
Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long is highly recommended. “In this book you’ll get to know your brain in a way that brains like: by reading a story.” Author and leadership coach, David Rock, wrote the book like a play, going scene-by-scene as the two main characters, Emily and Paul, read more…