TAG: Harvard Study of Adult Development

The SPIRE of Career Planning: How to Build Happiness and Optimism into Your Career Part 1

Career planning may feel daunting so here is something that can help to make the process feel fulfilling and motivating, build resilience and lead to greater optimism: The SPIRE model of happiness. Let’s explore the SPIRE of Career Planning! Career Planning is a great way to clarify what you want to achieve professionally and how to get there.  My method …

Strengths and Happiness Part 2: The SPIRE of Strengths

How do you feel when you are doing something that you are really good at and that you love? Probably pretty terrific! That’s because you are using your strengths: the talents that energize you.  Research from positive psychology demonstrates that identifying and using your strengths enhances your capacity for greater well-being and happiness. Strengths connect closely to Tal Ben-Shahar’s research-based …

Flow and SPIRE Model of Happiness: How Flow Boosts Your Happiness

Think back to the last time that you were doing something: that you love, where you were totally immersed in this activity and in the zone, totally confident, free of judgment, feeling tremendous joy and so absorbed in what you were doing that time was going by and you didn’t even notice it. How do you feel? Chances are that …

Happiness and Balance: How Leaders Use the SPIRE Model for Life Balance

Does life balance give rise to greater happiness? How can the science of happiness help to achieve happiness AND balance? These are the questions that I explored with the alumni of  OPERA America’s Leadership Intensive Program at the recent Leadership Intensive Alumni Forum in Los Angeles, California. These non-profit arts leaders have been through an incredibly demanding period starting with the …