more from the happiness advantage

I'm almost finish the Happiness Advantage audiobook. In the most recent chapters Shawn Achor talks about why will power doesn't work.

• will power takes brain power, making you tired and affecting your performance on other tasks
• instead of using will power to change habits, use the 20 sec rule
• create a 'path of least resistance' to whatever habit forming thing you want to accomplish

There are many more things that are great tidbits to remember, but I guess what I found fascinating about this audiobook is that because Achor is an academic, he uses study after study to prove all his points instead of just relying on personal experience.

Three Good Things
1. Duke and Petey didn't eat ANY garbage on the streets during our evening walk
2. Dosa Mahal for lunch <3
3. Andre's TV spot on eTalk

a new layout for a kind of new year

I finally updated the layout of this blog and while I don't think I'll be posting as much as I used to, I'm hoping the fresh look will encourage me to post a bit more often.

I've recently started listening to The Happiness Advantage. In it, Shawn Achor, positive psychology researcher, outlines 5 things we can to do become happier which in turn will help us be more successful at work. It's interesting because he finds numerous studies to backup all his points.

Some take-aways from the audiobook so far:
• neuroplasticity can allow us to become a glass half full person
• ... which can be accomplished through practice
• happy people live longer
• when you get out of a negative mindset, you start to see opportunities all around you

There is one daily exercise the author recommends which is to think of 3 things that made you happy that day. By doing this, he says that within a week or two you'll start to seek out all the good things in your daily life, notice them more, become happier and start to see opportunities (even out of what may seem like dire situations). So here goes!

Three Good Things

1. Finishing up a big web project
   
2. Having fun fidgeting with Blogspot and my new custom layout by Pugly Pixel (it's a free download!)
   
3. Very cute, pink roses from Andre

I'm about half way through the audiobook and can't wait to finish it.