Big Ideas for real life
Positive Psychology – A Practical Guide is an exceptionally accessible book for the lay person. Though it has 22 chapters, it is able to get a lot of practical, self-reflective and thought provoking ideas into a mere 200 pages. This makes it a very handy, very portable tool.
I particularly like the following chapters which have significant relevance for business;
- Engagement or flow – this is the quality of ‘being in the moment’ or ‘in the zone’, by attending fully to what you are doing now. This is useful because it enhances productivity, provides uninterrupted attention and helps us get through difficult tasks more quickly and effectively.
- Accomplishment – Often we think of accomplishment as something we pursue for its own sake and link it to status, power, earnings or some other measure. However, from Positive Psychology, we learn that accomplishment is more than that including ones sense of competence, mastery of something or achievement itself. Nurturing accomplishment leads to higher well-being.
- Motivation and Goals – higher motivation has been demonstrated to have significant benefits e.g. greater confidence, improved vitality, enhanced performance, increased persistence, greater innovation, and increased general well-being. Goals fall into two broad categories; approach goals and avoidance goals.
- Positive Psychology of Time – introduces the idea of the TP (or time perspective). Each of us views time in a certain way which can affect the way we work, relax and feel like we are productive. This chapter provides some really interesting insights on TP and also has links for you to identify your TP plus illustrates how to move from a TP to BTP (a balanced time perspective).
The final element of the book is it’s Resources Section which is chock-full of additional websites, reading material and useful tips and tricks to improve your resilience, wellbeing and engagement at work and in life.
Mike Hackett PMP ARCHTI MIACP
Consultant, Lecturer & Psychotherapist.
