Why You Need to Stop Worrying About Failing Success Magazine, Shawn Achor October 2015 Do you know what “icing the kicker” means? In football, when a kicker is preparing to make a potential game-winning field goal, the opposing coach will often call a timeout right before the ball is snapped. The thinking behind this strategy…
Consuming Negative News Can Make You Less Effective at Work Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan September 2015 We’ve known for some time now that hearing negative news broadcasts can have an immediate effect on your stress level, but new research we just conducted in partnership with Arianna Huffington shows how significant these negative…
Make Yourself Immune to Secondhand Stress Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan September 2015 Over the past decade, we have learned how our brains are hardwired for emotional contagion. Emotions spread via a wireless network of mirror neurons, which are tiny parts of the brain that allow us to empathize with others and…
SUCCESS Magazine, Shawn Achor December 2014 The brilliant Amy Wrzesniewski from Yale University researches how people perceive their jobs. She found that the way a person sees his or her occupation—as a “calling,” as opposed to a “job”—doesn’t depend on the job title or position, but on the meaning he or she perceives in the…
SUCCESS Magazine, Shawn Achor September 11, 2014 When I was 7, I ran away from home with my 5-year-old sister. Some 7 miles of arduous walking later, we arrived at my dad’s old fishing hole. Thankfully, 15 hours later, our parents and the local police finally found us. They hadn’t thought to look there sooner because…
October 15, 2014 Imagine how happy you would be if all your interactions with others were positive and pleasant. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s actually quite easy to establish. In 2009, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, split 100 participants into groups of four and filmed them working together to solve…
When people are stressed, you often hear them say, “I need a vacation.” But could a less stressful trip result in higher happiness and energy at work? Is there a vacation from work that is scientifically proven to lead to greater levels of productivity, higher energy and lower stress? In December 2013, we set out to find the answer. More…