Do You Want a Path to Happiness? Here is the Most Important PowerPoint Slide You Will Ever See!

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Exercise, gratitude, happiness, journaling, meditation, positive psychology, random acts of kindness, Shawn Achor, the happiness advantage

 

To start, I must give credit where credit is due.  I didn’t create this slide.  The slide was created by Shawn Achor, who has a PhD from Harvard where he teaches positive psychology concepts.  He is also author of the book “The Happiness Advantage.”  His TED Talk: The Happy Secret to Better Work is one of the most entertaining and insightful talks I have ever seen.

While most of the bullet points on the slide are self-explanatory, I will give a brief description of each below.  They are, essentially, actions you should take to increase happiness.

• 3 Gratitudes – Write down every day three things you are grateful for.
• Journaling – Start a journal and write down on a regular basis your thoughts or feelings.
• Exercise – Get moving… Period!
• Meditation – Proven to decrease stress, this is a good one.  There are many helpful apps out there that provide guided meditation exercises, but this can be as simple as sitting and paying attention to your breaths for 5 to 15 minutes a day.
• Random Acts of Kindness – Look for ways to do kind things.  Preferably ,spur of the moment things.  If you have never bought coffee for the person behind you at the Starbucks drive though.  Try it sometme.  You will be shocked at how good you feel the rest of the day.

The best part about the 5 items above, there is actually research to back them up.  So these are not just ideas, they are proven steps for increasing happiness.  Try them out for a few days and leave a comment about your experience.

This could be the clear path to Smiling Big and Dreaming Bigger.

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The Dream, Dream Team

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Chris Guillebeau, dream team, James Altucher, Jonathan Fields, Leo Babauta, live your legend, Scott Dinsmore, Shawn Achor, the happiness advantage, Tim Ferriss, zen habits

I have many authors and invididuals that inspire me daily and help me towards achieving my dreams. I call this group my dream, dream team. While the list is far short of being all inclusive, these are some of the key individuals that have recently inspired me to continue my dream quest.

1. Chris Guillebeau – Travel hacker and author of “The Art of Non-Conformity” he is the epitome of living life unconventionally. Chris hasn’t worked for anybody in the last 10 years and has taught thousands how to find their life’s passion. He sets goals and achieves them like visiting all 193 by the time he was 30.

2. Tim Ferriss – The master of learning anything with profound efficiency and greatness. He is author of “The 4 Hour Work Week” and teaches you how to achieve more with less. From facing his fear of swimming to mastering languages after years of struggling, he will inspire you to try to achieve what feels like it is un-achievable.

3. James Altucher – Reading Altucher’s books and blogs is like riding on an emotional roller coaster. He is, however, willing to reveal all and uses his mistakes to teach you how to succeed. James is not afraid to explain how he became a multimillionaire, lost it all, then became a multimillionaire again, only to lose it all again. Like I said, his life and work is an emotional roller coaster. He wrote the book “Choose Yourself” and believed in the message so deeply that he was willing to give the book away for free for the first 3 months of publication.

4. Leo Babauta – One of the top bloggers in the world he focuses on living life more deeply through simplification. His blog Zen Habits is read by millions. Leo went from a hyper stressed, unhealthy, overworked individual male to a clear headed peaceful individual. He feels that people sharing his message serves him and his readers much more than protecting it through copyrighting. If you are blogger yourself I encourage you to share his message with your readers.

5. Shawn Achor – He will show you how to be happier through 5 different things you can do every day. While it sounds too simple to be true, he is a Harvard Grad in Positive Psychology and has countless studies to back up his claims. The proof is in the pudding and he has lots of pudding.

6. Jonathan Fields – He’s a career renegade that wrote a book by the same name. Jonathan gave up a high profile NYC lawyer job to pursue multiple business opportunities including starting his own yoga studio. He now teaches others how to be their own career renegade.

7. Scott Dinsmore – Scott believes you can do what you love while simultaneously changing the world. He believes in the concept of living your legend and runs a web site by the same name.

There are plenty of others that inspire me but these are the ones I am most focused on currently and impacted me over the last few months. If you are looking to fulfill your dreams, the individuals above will provide a great spring board.

Smile Big and Dream Bigger.