Happiness Advantage
This is one of the best TED talks ever! Shawn Achor has a wonderful way to explain his research topic “positive psychology”. First he rises the energy levels in the audience by telling a wonderful story from his early childhood and once everyone is waiting for the next joke to arise he explains his research findings over the last years. Here some quotes out of his talk:
See what we’re finding is it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.
90 percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world.
We’ve found that there are ways that you can train your brain to be able to become more positive.
By doing these activities and by training your brain just like we train our bodies, what we’ve found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but create a real revolution.
Very inspiring talk and a great summary of his book: “Happiness Advantage”
Leave your comment what you think about this talk and maybe you have another awesome TED talk to share.
TED: Great leaders
I love watching TED videos and once in a while there are awesome new talks available like this one from Simon Sinek: “Why good leaders make you feel safe”.
He emphasizes how leaders can create an awesome organization in which people can thrive. Love the example at the end of the video how a great leader refused to lay of people instead found another solution for it.
Where is home?
After traveling to so many amazing places and living at great destinations for months this question was in my head for a while and I didn’t have a great answer.
Then I stumbled on this awesome and very inspiring TED talk: “Where is home?” from Pico Iyer and he came up with a great definition for me as well
“Home is where you become yourself”
Another great quote from Pico Iyer is about traveling which holds true for myself as well:
“Traveling is a little bit like being in love, all your senses are turned on”
or
” Traveling is not like seeing new sights it is looking with new eyes”
If you get the chance watch this great and inspiring TED talk, or some of the others TED talks
Life lesson
In this brilliant 6 min talk Angela Lee Duckworth talks about the success in education and in life. And she has observed it is about the GRIT. How do you build grit? She is not sure yet, but a growth mindset is very helpful. When you stick with your future, life will progress in this direction.
Live life as it is a marathon
This video reminds me very well of my learning experiences on my around the world trip, especially surfing. In the beginning I was more falling then surfing. I was more paddling then anything else, I was so exhausted from all that, especially because my body and my technics were weak.
But then you have one second on the board and you feel the adrenaline rush in your body and you know all this falling and being exhausted is part of it. And I knew that over time I will get better in surfing. And I did! Not that I’m a great surfer yet, but I see the progress and this is very rewarding indeed and helps me to stick to the goal in learning how to surf 🙂 Life lesson learned!
Lollipop Moments
Traveling gives you time for inspiration and one of my sources are TED Talks at TED.com.
Here one gem I found recently, an inspiring 6min TED talk by Drew Dudley to see leadership as “Lollipop moments”.
Think about your “lollipop moments” How many have you created, acknowledged or thanked for?
One of my biggest lollipop moment was more a period when I was in high-school: I had this amazing computer science teacher and when the decision was to be made what to study it was computer science. More than 12 years later I got the chance to meet this very same teacher again and thanked him for his big influence he had in my life.
If somebody in your life has given you such lollipop moments and you haven’t told them, let them know!