Happiness and positive thought. Those topics are getting a great deal of attention and air time these days. From Marc Accetta at his blog I learned that this evening CNN is showing Happiness and Your Health: The Surprising Connection. [Added the next day. Here is the transcript of Happiness and Your Health.]
Accetta also links to an article about the benefits of happiness in the workplace. From that article:
Happiness at work affects productivity, experts say. "I think having that concern as an organization can really point to some important structural aspects of the way work is done," Barbara Friedrickson, a positive psychology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told CNN. "When business teams are able to get to this higher ratio of positive to negative emotions, they seem to unlock a lot of resourcefulness within the team."
It is these ideas of positive psychology that the firm uses to advise its clients, which include big-name companies --Cisco Systems, Puma, Pirelli and Wimbledon.
The article includes an interview of the founders of a happiness consulting firm (yes, you read that correctly -- what a great gig). They were asked: "Are there some companies that are more unhappy than others?"
The response: "Law firms are traditionally some of the most unhappy places to work."
I wonder if they have been hired by many in the legal profession?
Click over to Accetta's post for more happiness information and links. Plus, here's a bonus for you on happiness, a Psychology Today article entitled "Mastering Your Own Mind." The author Katherine Ellison talks about happiness as our birthright and says:
From best-sellers on finding joy to a Harvard course on "a fulfilling and flourishing life," happiness is a popular American pursuit. Of course, there's happiness and then there's happiness. Most of us hold in high esteem the hedonic variety of happiness: experiences of pleasure and, often, amassing material goods and wealth. But there's another kind, called eudaimonia, that rests on the realization of personal goals and potential. The ideal runs in a ragged line from Aristotle to Maslow to Sartre, paralleling Buddhism somewhere along the way.
If you are interested in happiness, I recommend this article. And I'll be watching CNN tonight. How about you?
Note (added November 26, 2006, 10:35 AM Mountain): Posted at globeandmail.com is an AP article "Woman tickled pink over happiness study." The article begins:
New research suggests people can easily improve their mental outlook, experts say
NEW YORK — As a motivational speaker and executive coach, Caroline Adams Miller knows a few things about using mental exercises to achieve goals. But last year, one exercise she was asked to try took her by surprise.
That happiness research about the legal profession is serious stuff. Lawyers are more likely to be depressed and suicidal than other professionals:
http://www.utahbar.org/barjournal2000/html/august_september_2003_13.html
Posted by: Penelope Trunk | November 21, 2006 at 11:30 PM