A recent article in The Wall Street Journal cited research that showed our social networks—family members, friends and acquaintances we regularly interact with—strongly influence how we feel. For example, when one person is happy, the members of their social network are 25% more likely to be happy. Furthermore, this influence can even spread though online…
I attended a party recently where one of the guests was intent on bragging about his latest exploits. I watched as he moved from group to group trying to get people to listen to his story. As soon as he started talking about himself, one by one, people in the group would excuse themselves and…
The Wall Street Journal recently carried an essay written by Scott Adams, the creator of “Dilbert.” The essay contained some sound bits of wisdom on how to become successful based on his personal experienced. One of his points was to “Attract Luck.” Mr. Adams went on to say, “You can’t manage luck directly, but you…
Serendipity is the accidental discovery of something wonderful while you’re searching for something else. I remember once searching through a set of files looking for a particular letter and found a check for $1,200 that I had long forgotten about—I was ecstatic. Recently, a group of researchers that included author Clive Custler, were searching for…
I was at a party recently when someone said to me, “People don’t change much as they age unless they continue to grow as they get older.” In other words, when we stop growing, we become boring. This thought intrigued me, so I did some checking and found out the notion has a great deal…
Rachael Ray recently interviewed Jennifer Lopez on her television talk show. When Rachel asked Jennifer how she was able to deal with all the criticism that went along with being a star, she gave a very confident and impressive answer. She said, “Know who you are, stay true to that and try to get better.” …
Recently while sitting in a physician’s waiting room, I picked up an issue of Newsweek magazine. The cover story was an article written by Sharon Begley about the things we can do to make our brains work better. The article covered the gamut of subjects like what vitamins, foods, drugs and mental exercises might possibly…
In 1921, Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford University began a long-term study of 1,528 twelve year old American children. The goal of this project was to study their lives and habits until they died. Recently, Howard Friedman, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California Riverside and Leslie Martin, Professor of Psychology…
I grew up in an environment where daydreaming was considered loafing or a waste of time. The prevailing logic was simple: If you were daydreaming, you weren’t working. Recently, while reading Brian Clark’s blog on the web site Lateral Action, I found out that there is sound scientific evidence connecting daydreaming with creativity—people who daydream…
The pursuit of happiness is still alive and well according to an article written by Tammy Brodesser-Akner that appeared in a recent issue of Spirit Magazine. As it turns out, the benefits of happiness are well worth the pursuit. According to the article, there are at least 225 studies which tell us that once you…