General

Want to be lucky? Prepare, be there, express & say yes!

Nico Rose - TEDxBergenYesterday, I told you that I would be going to give a TEDx talk at Bergen/Norway today. And that´s already history by now. I had a great time and would like to congratulate the TEDxBergen team for the great job that they´ve done (the event is entirely run by students!). Thanks for inviting me…

Since it´s probably going to take a couple of days until there´s a video available, let me give you a bit of advance information. My topic was: “How to be the architect of your own fortune”. I talked about how some People be seem to be luckier than others by sort of inviting luck into their lives.

In doing so, I cited some work by Richard Wiseman, Esa Saarinen, Steven Johnson/Stuart Kauffman, and Angela Duckworth. I also integrated some quotes by Louis Pasteur, Woody Allen, and Richard Branson, and talked about how God “manages”.

Here´s the summary, basically – which was also my punchline for the talk. If you want to bring more luck into your life, this is how it goes:

Prepare, be there, express & say yes!

Watch out for my video in a couple of days…

 

A Room to Coach in

This may be a little bit off-topic – but: a German magazine has created a feature on coaching rooms and their owners – and I was picked among six others German coaching providers:

Coaching - Dr. Nico Rose

My room is decorated fairly “neutral” – except for the corner where my two armchairs are located. This corner is held in a dark purple tone. It was designed that way so as to create the feeling of a save and secure place – where change can happen. Otherwise, there´s not too much in it except for two large book shelves. It creates the feeling of looking into an open space – even though the room is not that large.

It´s definitly somthing unusual – but I still like it very much. And the same goes for my clients, as far as I know. 🙂

 

“All in on Love” and other beautiful Stories…

I guess I´m suffering from MAPP deprivation. The Penn graduation ceremony seems like a long time ago – even though it´s only been three months since then. And now that I´ve handed in my master thesis I´m free to do whatever I want. But the truth is: I miss my stays in Philadelphia. And I miss my MAPP classmates.

Time to engage in some reminiscence. Below, you´ll find a collage from graduation weekend (click to enlarge; from left to right and clockwise: Martin Seligman, co-founder of Positive Psychology and me; standing out from the crowd; James Pawelski, academic director of the MAPP program at Penn, and me; a view of Penn´s stadium during commencement; commencement brochure etc.; reuniting with Linda Matesevac, my psychology teacher from 19 years ago; the “Walk of Honor” on Penn´s Locust Walk; middle: me and some MAPP cohort members).

Nico Rose - MAPP - Penn Graduation

And you should definitely check out Penn President Amy Gutman´s salutation – and the fabulous commencement speech given by Penn alumnus and Soul & R´n´B star John Legend (“All in on Love”; here´s the full text). Enjoy!

Mappy Birthday! The most Mappalicious Blog on Positive Psychology is 1 Year old today…

Happy Birthday365 days ago, I started Mappalicious as a kind of diary while being in the 2013/14 Master of Positive Psychology (MAPP) cohort at the University of Pennsylvania. By now, the program is over – and there are 181 blog entries which means that I blogged something roughly every other day. I´m a little bit proud of myself for being so diligent.

And I´ve decided to go on with the blog as a valuable resource for people that are interested in Positive Psychology (and my personal take on the field…). For today, here are the 10 most-read articles of the first 365 days:

  1. History in the making: Epic Harvard Study on what keeps Men healthy and happy
  2. SCHLAAAAAND! How the Soccer World-Cup helps to Build a Likeable Version of the “German Nation” *
  3. Monkey (Porn) Business keeps up with the Kardashians **
  4. Mappsterview No. 1: Emilia Lahti, the Queen of Sisu
  5. The James Bond Philosophy of Life – in 007 Chapters
  6. A little Kindness goes a long Way: heart-warming Short Film about the Power of being a Giver
  7. My Top 20 TED(x) Talks on Happiness, Well-Being, Meaning & Co.
  8. The Upsides of Suffering: On Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) and the Wounded Healer Archetype
  9. 7 common Misconceptions about Positive Psychology
  10. My Mind´s MAP(P): The 4-minute Ivy League Diploma in Positive Psychology

My blog also consists of 12 permanent pages by now. Apart from the “Home” section, my list of seminal Positive Psychology articles has the most views by far.

*This one is especially sought-after since it was published only about four weeks ago. **Guess which article gets the most traffic via search engines – and why…

 

Picture Source

My Positive Intervention of the Day: SCHLAAAND!

No comment.

Flag - German Smiley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S.

Concerning Fredrickson´s article Updated Thinking on Positivity Ratios – I have a suggestion: How about 7 to 1? 🙂

 

Picture source

 

How to rock your Ivy League Master in Positive Psychology: a 10-Point Action Plan

Penn LPS GraduationAfter each on-campus period of the MAPP 2013/14 program, we were asked to write a journal entry, mostly in order to reflect on important insights from the days before. After the final onsite in May, we were also asked to come up with a list of “eureka moments“, tiny bits of knowledge we would like to pass on to future Mappsters so as to help them to make the best of their experience at Penn.

So here´s my list. Please keep in mind that this is my list. The list of a German trying to balance a full-time management job, several sidelines, plus having a family, with successfully making it through a wonderful but very demanding master´s program that entails regular intercontinental flights. So the list of my beautiful classmates could look entirely different. But I would expect some overlap at least…

 

*That´s (typically, but not necessarily…) a person of the opposite sex you love almost as much as your actual significant other. Just without the sex thing.

** That´s a sophisticated term for “Why should I really read ‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’ when there´s several superb executive summaries on the www?

*** I mean really good ones. German, Suisse, or Belgium brands. Hershey´s fine – but it´s not the real deal.

2014 Penn MAPP Graduates

Expressing Appreciation made easy: The Gratitude Bucket

Gratitude BucketWant to say thank you to somebody and don´t know how? Do not fear, for Gratitude Bucket is with you! Gratitude Bucket was created by Zack Prager, a fellow MAPP alum. It´s an easy-to-use website that let´s you create a personal “gratitude space” for a specific person where you (and all the people you invite…) can openly express your gratitude and thereby share it with the world. E.g., this is a bucket for “Sensei” Esa Saarinen after he was injured with a knife earlier this year…

Why should you make another person happy by expressing gratitude? Because it´s one of the most accessible pathways to your own happiness!

Watch out for “Fulfillment Daily” – the Science-backed news Source on “The Good Life”

I´m excited! On June 15th, a new website will launch. It´s name: Fulfillment Daily. What it says on their website: Fulfillment Daily is a place to get science-backed inspiring news to benefit your own life, inspire others, and, ultimately, contribute to uplifting all of society. We envision a world in which everyone has access to the science of fulfillment.

Fulfillment

Among the regular contributors will be some top experts in the field of Positive Psychology. And … um … well … me. The project´s founder is Emma Seppälä, Associate Director at Stanford´s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Among the group of writers are Scott Barry Kaufman, author of Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined, Emilia Lahti, Queen of Sisu, and Wharton´s Adam Grant, author of Give and Take. How I managed to be among this group of magnificent people? I don´t know. The Lord moves in mappalicious ways…

You can also follow Fulfillment Daily on Facebook and Twitter.

On Talent Management: Above all, it´s the Love for People

The radio silence on Mappalicious is over. I´ve spent the last 10 days on Cyprus with my family and have committed to a “computer diet” as strictly as possible.

Here´s our #CyprusFamilyjustbeforeSundownonthePlaygroundbesidetheBeachSelfie:Family_Rose_Cyprus

Yesterday, I was a speaker a the iRecruit 2014 conference in Amsterdam. Beforehand, I was interviewed on my views about talent management for the fair´s magazine. You can read that by clicking on the picture below. I am very much convinced that before MAPP, the interview would sounded somewhat differently…

Nico_Rose_Interview_iRecruit

The No. 1 Secret to Standing Out from the Crowd at an Ivy League School…

Climb* on a chair! 🙂

Outstanding Pomp and Circumstance

Just came home from a fabulous Penn (MAPP) graduation and commencement weekend. Will post lots more on that shortly…

* A big thank you to my classmate Brandy Reece and her husband for the awesome photo. In that moment, I climbed on my chair to give a special shout-out to our program director James Pawelski who was passing by.