For a long time, I stayed in the closet about The Secret. In fact, when I was studying for my fancy, ivy league Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree, The Secret had just come out on film and it was a dirty word amongst my colleagues and professors, especially. Many were afraid (ahem...
My mom always said "no grass grows under his feet." "A bull in the china shop" was another popular metaphor for Little Louis. What can I say? I like to get going. What I'm learning, though, is that to sustain, I need support. We all need support. I yearn for real we: team. But am I/are we wired for this - or, have we been conditioned with scarce perceptions? These days, while I'm headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, I'm also traveling back and forth between here and Northern Valley, NJ -- both places I'm facilitating SOMO leadership, a concept to help learn...
Here's a quick tip to ring in the new year with clarity & purpose: Spend some time reflecting on 2011 with an appreciative lens. What are you grateful for? Essentially, list all of the good things that have come your way and savor them. Really get specific here and list as many good things as you can. Here's a good article on savoring. And a good segment on why gratitude is important that I recently saw on CBS news. Look forward to the new year and ask: "What do I want more of in my life?" When you think what you don't want,...
[caption id="attachment_535" align="alignright" width="157" caption="Shot on my run one morning along the Bosphorus River."][/caption] I'm just returning from Turkey, where I spent just five days in Instanbul, an amazing place on so many levels--rich with history, faith (of all kinds), and beauty beyond imagination. I was invited to facilitate a SOMO Learning Lab for 30 pioneering change-agents (coaches, HR directors, business & media leaders, university professors) in a 2-day experience we called Engaging Leadership With Positive Psychology. The program was stamped by George Mason University's Institute for Leadership Excellence and its Director, Fran Nurthen and I co-facilitated. We used my SOMO Leadership Model as the...
From Marty Seligman's new book Flourish. Marty is my mentor from the University of Pennsylvania, where I completed my graduate work in 2008. He is known as the father of positive psychology and is really an incredible visionary. "Happiness Is Not Enough When I started my work in Positive Psychology, my original view was closest to Aristotle’s—that everything we do is done in order to make us happy—but I actually detest the word happiness, which is so overused that it has become almost meaningless. It is an unworkable term for science, or for any practical goal such as education, therapy, public policy,...
[caption id="attachment_474" align="alignright" width="384" caption="Not expecting a miracle from beyond me - but creating one within me."][/caption] I turn 33 on May 21, 2011. My intention is to feel the strongest & healthiest I have ever felt in my life on May 21, 2011. To do this, I will: Meditate regularly. Exercise daily: lifting, inten sati, yoga. Train for the Cleveland Half Marathon, which I'll run on May 15. Choose healthy food options (What's been 'kissed by the sun'?). Eliminate toxins (no drinking or inhaling anything other than fresh, clean air). Love myself fully, exactly as I am. I will know I'm successful when I feel it. I set and spoke...
Many of you know I'm working in Cleveland on a city-wide transformation project, a viral well-being initiative teaching people how to think differently and get more of what they want. We do this by inviting folks into SOMO Learning Labs, a place to come learn snippets of applied positive psychology, a "mind gym" if you will. But for many people, when I say I'm working in Cleveland, they groan and ask "why?" I hear the sentiment is the same there in Cleveland, that when someone moves there, instead of "Welcome" other residents ask, "Why?" And this is exactly why I'm working on...