Book Review: Before Happiness by Shawn Achor

Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change by Shawn Achor is the follow-on to his international best seller, The Happiness Advantage. I recently reviewed The Upside of Your Dark Side, by Robert Biswas-Deiner and Todd Kashdan, and shared that I had mixed feelings about it. This book read more…

The Upside of Your Dark Side by Robert Biswas-Deiner and Todd Kashdan (Book Review)

It’s with very mixed feelings that I write this review of The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self–Not Just Your “Good” Self–Drives Success and Fulfillment; and the authors would undoubtedly approve! This is a bold and thought-provoking book by Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Deiner (who, in the interest of full disclosure, read more…

GO Beyond SMART to SMARTEST Goals

The science of setting and reaching goals tells us that the best goals go beyond SMART. Use the acronym SMARTEST Goals to help you reach your goals.

Why Games? Why are games great for learning?

“Why games? Why are games a good way to teach something?” I asked to kickoff the breakout session after my keynote at the International Game Developer’s Association (IGDA) Leadership Summit. I was honestly blown away at the amazing answers: “All games teach.” “Because play is how we naturally learn, it’s how we’ve always learned throughout human history, read more…

Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals by Heidi Grant Halvorson (Book Review)

Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals focuses on goals: how we set them, how we reach them, and why we fail. This book is an extension of social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson’s popular Harvard Business Review blog post: Nine Things Successful People Do Differently. The things people do to succeed are: 1. Be specific 2. Seize the read more…

My review of the book “Character Strengths Matter” by Kathryn Britton and Shannon Polly

What’s even better than an inspiring, innovative, and useful book that helps us thrive? One that also supports a good cause. Character Strengths Matter: How to Live a Full Life, edited by Kathryn Britton and Shannon Polly, is just such a book. Character Strengths Matter explores strengths: those things we do very well and that energize us. The read more…

Truly Tap Your Strengths To Do Better Work and Enjoy It More!

Strengths = Talent + Energy At Happy Brain Science we teach individuals and organizations how to Truly Tap Strengths by focusing on examining beliefs that may be inhibiting strengths, exploring ways to discover strengths, and strategizing ways to act and build on strengths. A strength, as defined by strengths researchers, is a behavior that you read more…

Book Review: Incognito by David Eagleman

David Eagleman is a very smart person with an infectious enthusiasm for how the brain works. He does an excellent job describing how much of what happens in our brain is typically beyond our conscious awareness, like changing lanes on the highway, for example. In Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, Eagleman spends a significant portion read more…