Gratitude

Beautiful Short Film on the Ripple Effect of Kindness and Gratitude

We all know the warm feeling of gratitude in our hearts when we’ve been the beneficiary of an act of kindness. And the really good thing is: in return, we typically want to be kind(er) to others, too. E.g., a recent study by the name of The Social Contagion of Generosity finds that receiving help from strangers prompts us to be kind to other strangers, thereby creating a ripple effect of gratitude and kindness.

This mechanism is beautifully depicted in the following short film from Turkey. Enjoy!

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!

Unfortunately, our Brains do not look like this. But wouldn´t it be nice?

Your Brain on Greater Good

This beautiful image was created by the beautiful people at Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. And no, our brain doesn´t look like that. But we all have the capacity to develop more of the qualities and entities depicted above. If you´d like to have more input, please watch Emma Seppälä´s (Stanford CCARE) TED talk on the “Science of Social Connection”:

Thank a Teacher: Somebody influenced your Life? Let ´em know…

Has there been a special teacher, professor, or mentor that you would like to thank for positively influencing your life? If you´re still looking for the right moment – it might be here right now. Six seniors from Olin College, MA have created the website www.thank-a-teacher.org which lets you express your appreciation in public. The site has really taken off over the last days thanks to exposure on social media.

So below, you will find my thank-you-note to Linda Matesevac, who was my psychology teacher from 1994-95 when I was an exchange student at York Country Day School, Pennsylvania.

Nico Rose - York Country Day School

In Germany, psychology is not taught at high-schools. Entering my junior year, I had already (sort of) made up my mind to make it to law school. That changed dramatically over the year. Thanks to Linda, from 1998 on, I majored in psychology at the University of Muenster, Germany. 15 years later, I became part of the 9. cohort of the Master of Positive Psychology program at Penn. I am writing this on the morning of my graduation ceremony. Linda is going to be there – so we´ll meet for the first time in 19 years… 🙂

Thank a Teacher

Happy Thoughts: Here are the Things proven to make you Happier

I´m a little bit lazy with writing these days – or rather, I´m busy busy busy with other pleasurable issues. So instead of writing something myself, I´d like to point your attention to a nice overview article on Positive Psychology on Time Magazine. It´s contains lots of links for further exploration…

Enjoy!

Happy_Thoughts

 

It was a very good Year…

Thank You DanceOne of the oldest and therefore thoroughly researched interventions in positive psychology is deliberately focusing one´s attention on being grateful. So why not express gratitude for a whole year? Here were go … *

Thank you to Carl-Christoph Fellinger for being an awesome colleague to talk to, an awesome co-author, and an awesome person in general.

Thank you to Dr. Hays Steilberg, my boss at Bertelsmann. You know why.

Thank you to Bernd Rathjen and his team at Corporate Candy for making me look good as a manager (not easy …).

Thank you to the organizing team of WHU Euromasters 2013 for making me feel like 23 again.

Thank you to Annette Mattgey, Anja Tiedge und Petra Diebold (out of the journalists I´ve worked with over the year).

Thank you to the participants of McKinsey´s CEO of the Future for making me believe the future will be a good one.

Thank you to Russell Ackoff for writing the best business book of all times (most likely …).

Thank you to Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) for re-introducing me to the art of listening to whole albums – instead of taking in whatever the “shuffle” shuffles…

Thank you to the whole MAPP gang, especially James Pawelski (Master of Ceremony), Esa Saarinen (Master of Elevation), Art Carey (Master of Style), Emilia Lahti (Queen of Sisu), and Patricia De La Torre (Mistress of elevated conversion, good food+wine, and staying up way too late…) for making my stay in the U.S. a one-of-a-kind experience.

Last not least:
Thank you to my wife for letting me be who I am. And to the Little Guru for making me better than I really am.

 

* Thank you for this inspiration, Christoph…

 

Clip art source

2013 – 8760h: How time flies…really?

Every time a year draws to a close, a lot of people start saying something like “Oh, how time flies…”. Mostly, it is used in a slightly sniveling fashion – as if those people might have missed something. I guess that´s why they show all those year-end retrospectives on TV. But then, they invite all these VIP and VEP (Very Exceptional People) – and at the end of the day, one´s own life might seem insignificant in comparison.

So why not create your own personal year-end retrospective?* Why not have a look at what really happened in those last 365 days?

Merry Christmas and happy new Year!

Nico Rose - Neon - Euromasters

One year consists of 8760 hours! I have…

Big Chunks

Need to Talk

Nico Rose - TEDxKoeln

Working with real People

New Beginnings

  • started to study (surprise, surprise…) positive psychology (and therefore spent 22 days in the U.S.)
  • started the blog Mappalicious (surprise, surprise…again…) and written 62 articles (including this one)
  • published 5 articles as “Digital Leader” via lead-digital.de
  • bought an acoustic guitar, taken 7 lessons and practiced about 10 hours (definitely not enough)

Endings

Not so nice

Very nice

  • been promoted at Bertelsmann

Nico Rose - Birthday

Personal Stuff

  • said “I love you” +365 times (not every day, but several times on some of the days)
  • canoodled with my son approx. one million times
  • read +80 good-night stories (definitely not enough, please refer to kilometers travelled)
  • had approx. 700 cappuccinos and 5 kg chicken tikka
  • been to 5 metal concerts and one opera premier

My New Year´s resolution: having myself cloned!

So, how might your very own year-end retrospective look like?

* Please excuse the fact that a lot links in this article will lead to German sites. I´ve really just started publishing in English this year – so most of my stuff is still in German…