In my last blog post, we saw how the students in my class at the Yale School of Music, 21st Century Arts Leadership: Inspiration, Innovation, Collaboration, are learning how to cultivate a positive mindset through three research-based interventions: flow, the growth mindset, and SPIRE. In order to adopt new ways of thinking, it is not enough to know the theories. …
21st Century Arts Leadership: 3 Ways to Cultivate a Positive Mindset
How do today’s arts leaders cultivate the positive mindset in order to lead through challenging times? That’s the question that we are now exploring in my 21st Century Arts Leadership class at the Yale School of Music. In my last post, I shared my model for what today’s arts leaders need for personal leadership-the ability to lead yourself before you …
Music and Happiness: How to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone with a Positive Mindset
Every summer, I spend one week entirely devoted to piano performance at pianoSonoma, a chamber music festival that brings together serious amateur musicians like myself with world-class professional musicians for a week of collaboration and performance in the beautiful Green Music Center, at Sonoma State University. The festival is led by founders and co-artistic directors, Jessica and Michael Shinn. I …
Optimism in Troubled Times: 3 Ways to Cultivate More Joy
I am a born optimist, and it’s challenging to remain optimistic these days, given the current state of affairs in our country and around the world. Yet optimism is a crucial element of well-being, and finding joy in our daily lives is an important way to cultivate that optimism. That’s why I commit to enhancing my sense of joy and …
The SPIRE of Career Planning: How to Build Happiness and Optimism with Meaningful Career Goals
My first post on the SPIRE of career planning explained how to embrace a positive mindset around your career planning and then conduct a personal assessment of your purpose, values, passions, and strengths. In this post, we will explore how to incorporate those elements to set meaningful career goals and create an action plan. The result will help you to …
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 …
Strengths and Happiness Part I: How Strengths Help You Live Your Purpose
What are you good at? What energizes you? What motivates you to achieve your big goals? Welcome to strengths! Strengths are a major component of positive psychology, the science of what makes life worth living. The strengths-based approach of positive psychology helps individuals to identify and focus on the positive aspects of their lives. In fact, research demonstrates that identifying …
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 …
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