Vision

--and I know you do too. Came across this quote yesterday from John Updike: "Dreams come true; without that possibility nature would not incite us to have them." And of course, today being Martin Luther King, Jr. day -- and this year marking the 50th anniversary of that speech -- is meaningful to me. My dreams are full of meaning and purpose. They give me goose bumps when I think about them. And as Napoleon Hill reminds us in his Think and Grow Rich "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." You know something that separates an Olympian from a non-Olympian? Vision. The ability to look...

  Bringing Positive Psychology Home: There’s No Place Like It   “In these days of wars and rumors of wars, haven’t you ever dreamed of a place where there was peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a lasting delight?” (Capra, 1937) Louis J. Alloro   Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for                                             Character Strengths & Virtues, MAPP 701 Positive Psychology Center University of Pennsylvania   January 21, 2008  Friend of Dorothy I have always been a “friend of Dorothy” (even before I knew what it meant, or, was comfortable with my own gayness) so watching The Wizard of Oz through a positive psychology lens was a real...

Here I am, now at 34 – my second mid-decade as an adult and I must say, there’s a tinge of existential crisis similar to what I felt at 25. 30 was easy, 30 was fun. But 24-26 was a time I remember feeling really crazy-in-the-head especially in regards to my professional life. What was I doing as everyone else around me was working their ways up their professional ladders? It’s similar to what I’m feeling now for my personal life. As people (now increasingly so in my world) get married and settle down, why am I still single? THEN I spent a majority...

...on the 11th. Love it. 1. Frame what’s come before, including 2010 + the first ten days of 2011, positively. We choose how we think. Choose to think about yourself and your past with positive lenses. It’ll help move you forward. 2. Get clear about what you want going forward. Look here for some ideas about how to do that. Be careful to know the difference between what you need and what you want. Set your intentions and commit. 3. Express some future gratitude around what you want, as if it’s already here. 4. Develop a capacity for spirituality: for seeing something(s) bigger than yourself. It’s way important for a life...

Well, it’s 2011 – how’d that happen so fast? I have to remember that time is not linear, the way we’ve devised it to be (and thus our expectation of how we experience it). Our calendar is (somewhat) man-made and can really just have easily picked April as the indicator of a new year (Why do we even call it April?) Some people even think spring is a better indicator of “anew” given the equinox. In any case, it is 2011 – and with the energy that goes ‘round with resolutions at this time, now’s a great pause for all us. What...

Don’t have it all figured out? Join the club. It’s okay. Change is dynamic, not linear. Small steps have big impacts: Change requires thinking about our thinking, which is engrained in our DNA. Thinking affects feeling and feeling affects action. Action is largely habitual, so changing behavior requires a plan. A plan requires a strategy. [“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”] A strategy requires inspiring goals and enabling objectives. Goals and objectives require a mission. A mission is defined by a vision. A vision is guided by values. What do you value? Wonder what your moral purpose may be? What is your “why” here in the world? What if everyone knew...

I’ve wanting to order a new Penn sweatshirt for quite sometime. The one (and only) that I own is getting a little ratty, like it may have been washed one too many times. The tassels are worn and even that little, plastic guard has come off. It’s time. But although I’ve been thinking about getting a new Penn sweatshirt for quite sometime, I haven’t done it, even with a strong intuition that it will bring me joy on some level. Every time I grab for the old sweatshirt I remember, “Oh yea, I want to look online at the Penn store...

It is silly to assume that the more I do, the more I’ll have (or be). When we find a nice harmony between doing and being, the Universe will show us what we need to know. It must start with being. What I’ve found is that when I get caught in the whirlwind of doing for the sake of doing or because society says I should do, I lose this sense of being, which is so important to my well-being. I lose my innate ability to know. I fall asleep. That consciousness goes away. So, what I need to do...

First on Barbara Walter’s special of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009 is Lady Gaga. What makes her so positive? “I had a dream and was fearless with my ambition,” Gaga (who’s right around my age) says. “Every bit of me is devoted to love and art.” It’s all about clarifying dreams and building intrinsic motivation around those dreams. Hope = pathways + agency. Positive psychologists study this. She says she felt like a “freak” when she was younger, especially in high school (don’t I know it too…). “I want to free them [struggling young people} from their fears and...

Last week I had the great fortune of being with the Dalai Lama three days in two cities. The second of these visits brought me to Washington DC, where the Mind Life Institute presented an annual congress on learning called “Educating World Citizens” which brought together over 2,000 international voices. The Dalai Lama participated in all sessions over two days, which engaged western scientists concerned about the good life, particularly in regard to schooling (teaching/learning). Session topics included: Envisioning the World Citizen; Attention, Emotional Regulation, and Learning; Compassion and Empathy, and Future Directions and Policy. To sum, we discussed how to educate...

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