Do you think that happiness is something that can be taught? Should happiness classes be taugh right along with math and English? According to a Financial Times article from London, Lord Layard argued that it should be taught. I’ve clipped the article for you to read. Read Post

There are good kinds of stress and there are bad kinds of stress.  Negative stress can even lead to burnout and depression and anxiety.  Dr. Tom Muha, an Annapolis Psychologist offers some strategies for dealing with stress, some of them are: decide to be happy, value happiness, recognize that only you have the power to decide whether or not you’ll be happy, think about happiness, think about what you want, be happy now, practice appreciation, practice forgiveness, create positives to balance out the negatives, do something to feel good when you’re feeling bad, make others happy, focus on your attitude, and keep your spirits up. Read Post

Some examples of businesses that built on the idea that time is an essence are: Domino’s – pizza in 30 minutes or it is free, FedEx – overnight delivery, auto dealers offering express lube in 29 minutes or less or else it’s free.  Time is a premium.  Now, even hospitals are jumping on the time bandwagon, compensating people for their time.  According to Yahoo! News, hospitals all over the country are trying to cut wait time, here are some examples of the incentives they offer: cinema passes to patients who wait 30 minutes or more for emergency room care, baseball tickets for waiting 30 minutes, and some even offer meal vouchers.  However, it isn’t the rewards you are getting for waiting that matter, it’s the service. Read Post

Nattavudh Powdthavee, a research officer at University of London’s Institute of Education, did a study that assigns monetary values to good health and relationships.  He surveyed 10,000 Britons about their health, money and happiness and they were asked to rank each answer on a scale from 1(bad) to 7(amazing).  He then analyzed how much extra money a person would have to make in order to move up on the scale, here are some examples: Increasing time spent with friends and family from rarely to often feels like getting $179,000 raise, and talking to your neighbors more often is like getting a $79,000 extra bonus each year. Read Post

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomburg recently stated, to a graduating class of City University of New York – Staten Island, that in order to get ahead in business you need to be the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night, take fewer vacation days and never have a sick day.  Sarah Schaefer Munoz, in her blog The Juggle, writes: Do you think this is sound advice for recent grads?” With all due respect to Mayor Bloomberg, I couldn’t disagree more. This isn’t good advice for anyone. I know what he’s talking about. I grew up in a culture that drilled that ethic into my very being.” Read Post

The UK’s Chiumento wrote an article, called “2007 Happiness at Work Index,” and it stated that relationships we have at work have a large impact on our overall happiness, and the sense that we are doing something meaningful.  Also, those that were unhappy with their career were most likely to say that money would buy happiness.  Some of the top factors leading to happiness at work are: friendly colleagues, enjoyable work, good superiors, varied work and a good work/life balance.  Some of the top factors making us unhappy at work are: lack of communication from managers, no recognition for a job well done, little personal development and lack of benefits. Read Post

Subjective Well-being: an individuals evaluation of their current happiness, this coming from the study “A Global Projection of Subjective Well Being: A Challenge to Positive Psychology?”  Subjective well being includes the sense of satisfaction that you feel, lack of depression and positive moods and emotions.  Some countries with high subjective well being are: Denmark, Switzerland, and Austria.  Some countries with low subjective well being are: Armenia, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe. Read Post

The perfect day as stated by Guy Kawasaki of Treumors, super blogger, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, columnist of Entrepreneur Magazine and author of eight books. Read Post

After being asked how to be productive, here are a few tips for doing so: find a place (or places) where you are comfortable, and find something that works and stick with it.  Take the time to discover what works best for you and stick with that. Read Post

According to a survey, from CareerBuilders.com, in 2007 37% of fathers would quit their jobs if their partner made enough money to support them and 38% would take a pay cut in order to be able to spend more time with their children.  Many fathers feel that their work-life intervenes with the time that they should be spending with their children.  27% of men spend more than 50 hours at work, 8% spend more than 60 hours, 25% spend less than one hour with their kids everyday, and 42% spend less than two hours everyday. Read Post