DaveShearon

My monthly post is up over at Positive Psychology News Daily

It's a review of a book that's "right" for an audience that is suprisingly broader than it's title suggests, Martial Virtues by Charles D. Hackney, PhD.

Stand by Me!!

Amazing.  Uplifting.  As Chris Peterson says, "Other people matter."

Stand by Me from theRedPillRadio on Vimeo.

Thursday Tunes - Straight No Chaser's "12 Days of Christmas"

This video is fun in several ways -- the excellence, the playfulness, and the way they handled the (probably forbidden) recording of their concert.  Someone at my wife's office turned us on to these guys.  Really great!  For more of their videos and music, go to http://www.sncmusic.com/.  Otherwise, enjoy!

Hating Tim Ferris, Time Mangement, Lawyers & Kickboxing

In researching yesterday's post, I came across this post on Penelope's Trunk Brazen Careerist.  In it, she describes her highly negative reaction to Tim Ferris of The 4-Hour Workweek fame.  She makes some interesting points, but not the one I am going to make here.  I want to pick out one piece of her blog and a comment from one of her readers about it.  The piece is this:

"And it reminds me of him winning the Chinese National Kickboxing Championships by leveraging a little-known rule that people are disqualified if they step outside the box. So he pushed each of his opponents outside the box to win."

The comment was:

"FINALLY! Someone who just comes out and says it! I facilitate a roundtable of CEOs and as soon as they read the part about the kickboxing – they said "trash it"..that's no way to do business for the long term."

"Had a lawyer tell me that it was "ingenious" on how to work around the rules….go figure!"

Great example of how "learning to think like a lawyer" often results in a detachment from values widely shared in modern societies.  Any wonder why corporate managers often don't call lawyers in until it's too late.  Do you wonder why business clients aren't loyal to law firms?

Here's a rainmaking suggestion:  reconnect with values.

 

Personal Productivity

As a lawyer and, therefore, a "trained" procrastinator, I have been interested in the change in my attraction to the idea of productivity since completing MAPP.  Basically, both the idea of setting goals and ways of better getting the work done to reach them struck me as offputting until just recently.  Most of my work seemed to be "just one more damn thing."  Now, as I have found my orientation changing more to being "pulled into the future" (Marty Selgiman's phrase), I also find my desire to be more productive going up.  Even hard and not intrinsically rewarding tasks seem more attractive as I am more able to see them in a big picture view of my life moving in directions I desire in a different domains.

Don't know if this will be accessible to those who aren't Wall Street Journal subscribers, but here is an article that details the author's test of three popular productivity management systems:  Getting Things Done (GTD), the Pomodoro Technique, and Franklin Covey's Focus method.  http://bit.ly/3KiQnI  Moreover, here are some great starting pages for further reading on each of these:

43folders on GTD:  http://bit.ly/2Jjw3S

Pomodoro Technique: http://bit.ly/2Jjw3S

Franklin Covey Focus: http://bit.ly/IdOnK

Positive Economics?

Is the "dismal science" dismal only because it's been too narrowly focused?  From Poverty to Prosperity: Intangible Assets, Hidden Liabilities and the Lasting Triumph over Scarcity looks to be a good read.  From the Amazon product description:

What economists left out of the story were the positive forces of creativity, innovation, and advancing technology that propel economies forward. Economists did not describe the dynamic process that leads to new pharmaceuticals, cell phones, Web-based information services-forces that fundamentally alter how we live our daily lives.

Economists also left out the negative forces that can hold economies back: bad governance, counterproductive social practices, and patterns of taking wealth instead of creating it. They took for granted secure property rights, honest public servants, and the willingness of individuals to experiment and adapt to novelty.

Might be a good companion read to The Power of Productivity: Wealth, Poverty, and the Trheat to Global Stability.

Monthyl post up over at PPND

My post at Positive Psychology Daily News this month is entiteld "'Positive' Psychology and 'Negative' Emotions".  True story about a recent teaching experience where some of the participants could spot my emotions, and why that was a good thing!

Army!

The Army's providing some great training to help soldiers and their families.

 

IQ & Being Smart

This article at New Scientist provides a good framework for understanding some of the relationship between IQ and being smart.  Every time I teach about Carol Dweck's work on growth mindsets, I run into some push back from academically successful folks arguing that there really is an intrinsic, something-internal-to-me element in "smartness."  Of course there is, but as Dr. Dweck and this article suggests, we tend to overestimate it. 

On the other hand, to the extent that the article suggests "rational thinking" is just IQ applied to non-intuitive situations, I think it underestimates the complexity of intelligence.  Ap Dijksterhuis' work on unconscious thinking shows that the "intuitive" system is capable of highly analytical and goal-directed thinking.  Further, there are some aspects of intuitive or emotional intelligence for which high-IQ cannot compensate.  Damasio's work shows that individuals with brain damage in certain areas associated with the emotional system can identify patterns but then not be able to adjust behavior to better achieve goals based on that knowledge.  Both laboratory experiments and studies in real-life situations (expulsions from school for high-school boys) demonstrate this finding. 

So what's the best approach to intelligence? 

First, it's rarely if ever, the limiting factor in living a happy, successful life filled where one experiences autonomy, competence and good relationships.  Use what you've got of all types of intelligence and you'll be able to accomplish goals that truly matter to you.

Second, apply Barb Fredrickson's "Broaden and Build" theory:  in general, thinking and living in a way that generates a 3:1 or better ratio of positive to negative emotions will allow the broadest, most creative thinking and the best ability to collaborate with others. 

Finally, remember that some tasks are best done in a neutral or slightly negative mood.  An example are tasks that require an ability to spot errors such as checking a spreadsheet for mistakes.

Photo: Rachel by Lcrward

Purposeful happiness

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes happiness.  It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”  Helen Keller

 

I would suggest that we actually live best and most happily when we have purposes in multiple areas of our lives:  family, friends, work, community, spiritual.  Further, our purposes need to engage our strengths and enfold our values.  Then, purpose can give rise to truly motivating goals.  For more, see this Positive Psychology News Daily post.

 

Photo: "Purpose" by sidewalk flying