The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 106: Michelle Gielan – How To Broadcast Happiness

Episode Date: March 13, 2016

Episode 106: Michelle Gielan – How To Broadcast Happiness Michelle Gielan is a remarkable leader… I love the way she approaches her work.  Studying happiness and the mindset in which she approaches life inspires me!  Her newest book, “Broadcasting Happiness” takes an incredible look at some really interesting topics on happiness including: Priming your brain for high performance, how to spark positive thinking, and How to deal with negative people.  We had a fascinating conversation on this episode of The Learning Leader Show. Michelle Gielan, national CBS News anchor turned positive psychology researcher, is the bestselling author of Broadcasting Happiness. Michelle is the Founder of the Institute for Applied Positive Research and is partnered with Arianna Huffington to study how transformative stories fuel success. She is an Executive Producer of “The Happiness Advantage” Special on PBS and a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. Michelle holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and her research and advice have received attention from The New York Times, Washington Post, FORBES, CNN, FOX, and Harvard Business Review. Episode 106: Michelle Gielan – How To Broadcast Happiness Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show “Our Happiness Can Be Infinite If We Are Happy For Others” In This Episode, You Will Learn: Developing the ability to integrate with your colleagues leads to sustained excellence Being happy for others is a key to success Being married to Shawn Achor – Living life of happiness…. Also how did they meet? Making small shifts to the way we communicate Seeing the meaning in the work that you do… How to do that What do you say to your spouse when you’ve had a rough day? Leading with positivity… Negativity takes up too much space in your brain Always being ready to go and take action How to deal with takers Focus on the 4 C’s Compassion Build social capital Generate contagious optimism Give compliments Give you brain regular small victories to build momentum Learning Leader – Have an incredible influence on others by showing up  “The Stories We Tell Ourselves Are True Even If They Aren’t True” Continue Learning: Go To: BroadcastingHappiness.com   Follow David on Twitter: @MichelleGielan Read: Broadcasting Happiness To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12 You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector W/ Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon Episode 082: Dan Pink – The Science of Motivation, Legendary Writer & Ted Talk Episode 086: Seth Godin – How To Become Indispensable & Build Your Tribe Did you enjoy the podcast? If you enjoyed hearing Michelle Gielan on the show, please don’t hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me. Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell   Bio From MichelleGielan.com Michelle Gielan, national CBS News anchor turned positive psychology researcher, is the bestselling author of Broadcasting Happiness. Michelle is the Founder of the Institute for Applied Positive Research and is partnered with Arianna Huffington to study how transformative stories fuel success. She is an Executive Producer of “The Happiness Advantage” Special on PBS and a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. Michelle holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and her research and advice have received attention from The New York Times, Washington Post, FORBES, CNN, FOX, and Harvard Business Review.

How can we, all of us, talk about negative news on TV, around the dinner table, in our businesses, in a way that actually empowers people and helps show them a path forward so that their brains don't get stuck. They actually get activated. So I went to the University of Pennsylvania, and I studied positive psychology under Dr. Martin Seligman, who's an amazing thinker. He's a founder of the field. And while there, the thing is, I had this epiphany, and it was epiphany about all of us. we are actually all broadcasters.

So I was a news broadcaster, and I thought that this, you know, power to influence other people was just for broadcasters and professional athletes, someone with a show is like yours. But really what I'm seeing now is that we all of us have this potential to influence other people, as parents, as leaders, as friends, through the things we say, the things we choose to talk about. And those small choices either can create success or they can hold all of us back. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success.

You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. And welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk. Thrilled with tonight's featured leader. It's Michelle Gielin. Michelle is the founder of the Institute for Applied. positive research and is partnered with Ariana Huffington to study how transformative stories fuel success. She's an executive producer of the Happiness Advantage, a special on PBS,

and is a featured professor in Oprah's happiness course. She holds a master of applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and her research and advice have received attention from the New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, CNN, Fox, and the Harvard Business Review. She's also the best-selling author of the book, Broadcasting Happiness, the Science of Igniting and Sustaining Positive Change. A few of the things we got into during our conversation. What are you personally broadcasting every day? Do you focus on the negatives? Or do you view things from a positive perspective? Michelle and I discussed that. And then why positive people have a magnetic

like quality about them? They are scientifically more attractive. You'll want to hear this part of the conversation. And then Michelle's goal setting process for long-term success and how we can all implement this. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great one. Without further due, it's Michelle Gielan. Michelle, so excited to have you here on a learning leader show. So thank you for being here. I got a quick question to get us rolling, and that's around leaders who have sustained excellence over extended periods of time. You are one of those, and you've also surrounded yourself by others who have that trait of sustained excellence. I'm curious.

What are some of the common characteristics those people all seem to share? Well, what we find in the research, because my background is in positive psychology research, is that people who are able to be successful over an extended period of time have developed the ability to integrate themselves with their social support network in a really effective way, in a way that allows them to not only be supported by that network, but actually to support those people probably more than they are supported in return. We find that people who are exceptionally supportive of their colleagues, their friends, their family, fuel their long-term levels, not only of success, but happiness as well. And in the work domain, people who are extremely supportive, that top quartile, you know, the top 25%,

They're 40% more likely to receive a promotion over the next year than the people who are the least supportive. Interesting. Who are the first few people that come to mind when you think of sustained excellence? Oh, you know, I've been blessed recently to partner up with Ariana Huffington. And to me, she's just an incredible leader because not only is she obviously doing great work in media, but she's also working on transforming the way we look at our relationship with sleep. I think people, too many people are not getting enough sleep. We see the effects of it in society.

And so just to be shining a spotlight right now on that has been amazing to watch. But also, I like how within the world of media, she's also looking at how she can transform it by being more solutions focused when we talk about the world's problems. And with sleep and transforming media, those are the two ways I think she's going to not only achieve long-term success, but also make her mark on the world. So she's an inspiration to me. To me, too. I actually sent Ariana a cold email, I don't know, about a month ago. And I said, I appreciate the work that you do and I admire it.

And I'd love to publish my writing on your website. What do you think? And really, quite frankly, I wasn't expecting a reception. And I got a response in less than 24 hours. And she said, and I sent her some examples of my work. I didn't just send that with nothing else. But some examples of some of my writing. And she wrote me back and said, absolutely. And got me set up. And now I've recently published some work on Huffington Post. So it's pretty cool to see how she's willing to be, to act in that manner as well. I'm definitely a big fan. When you were mentioning the common characteristics around positive psychology and how people are able to develop the ability to integrate themselves with their network, to really dumb that down, so to speak, it made me think of people who are simply happy for others.

Can you talk more about the people you've been around who just have that persona of being happy for other people that they're surrounded by? Yeah, I mean, I love this because there's a million. in reasons in the world for us to be happy for others. So that means ultimately then our happiness could be infinite if we're paying attention to the right things. We're working now with a lot of executives and parents and we talk about the science of happiness and how you can use it to fuel success because there are building blocks to happiness. We also see that when we have a more positive brain that actually fuels long-term levels of success at work and in our relationship And so I think everyone is very motivated when they hear this science because they say, whoa, these are quantifiable ways that I can change my levels of happiness and then I can reap the benefits as well.

But the next question we always get, and this comes from parents who are thinking of their children, a spouse who's thinking of their partner who might be struggling is, okay, I'm positive. I've got my brain in the right place, but how do I help make others more? positive, make them better. And I think that that's, you know, that's such a key question because right now what we're finding is that we don't process the world in an individual way. I, as I walk through my life, while I might think that I have my own individual ideas and things go, you know, the thoughts about the world, really it's a reflection in part of the influence of other people around me. And so, you know, my husband, Sean Acre, who's a fellow researcher, and I always say, we, co-processed the world with the people around us.

So therefore, the more we can support other people's happiness, the more that we can help them thrive in a significant and sustainable way. And ultimately, the more we're also at that fueling our own happiness at the same time. You brought up your husband, Sean, and this is something I speak about with people on this podcast from time to time, is having a supportive spouse. And I'm a huge fan of your husband as well. His work, The Happiness Advantage, and before Happiness, just a fantastic writer and a leader in himself. Great speaker, too.

I think he's pretty great, too. I assume you do. I'm curious, what is it, what's it like from a day-to-day perspective being surrounded with someone who's so like-minded? And you guys are doing research around a very similar, if not the exact same topic. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, people say, oh, two happiness researchers married. What's that like in your house? And then when we had our son Leo, who's now too, they said, well, he's going to just have to be the happiest baby in the world. I'm like, wow, no, sir. We, I love being not only life partners with him, because I mean, that's an extremely amazing experience. But also, it's really, it's amazing to get to experience the research and being research. partners together because we do look at the same kind of studies and we have partnered together on a number of projects. And, well, it's just a lot of fun, to be honest with you, because you're working with your

best friend. But I think we also have very similar goals overall, which is we want to uncover the research. We want to understand how the human brain works. And we also want to, most more than anything else, understand if we, all of us as individuals are to devote our attention towards a positive habit or a positive behavior. What's the best thing that we can do? Where's the best devotion of our resources so that we're all collectively not spinning our wheels? So it's been an amazing ride so far, and I'm so thankful this research brought me to him.

By the way, the way we met was I read his book. I thought it was fantastic. I was finishing up my master's in positive psychology, and I reached out to him, and much like you wrote to Ariana and said, this email could go into the ethos and I could never hear back. I got this really nice email, gracious email in response from him. And just, you know, I was asking for some professional advice. And he said, great, let's meet up.

And we just hit it off. Wow. What was that? That was back in 2011. That's pretty cool. I was wondering, I was going to be my next question was how you guys met if it was through some type of work or you admired this work because so many people do. I love to dig into your story now, Michelle, because you've got, you've had, you know, a great mentor

of mine said he searches for people who've had success in multiple life categories. And that's someone, and you've done that. I love to hear you tell your origin story to where you, basically where you came from. Because I know you've lived kind of a different life prior to doing what you're doing right now. And you made a change. and I would love to hear you describe why you did that. Yeah, so I'm like a cat with nine lives, three or four of them so far. I originally was a computer engineer, dreamed about being a network news anchor

while I wrote code at that.com that I worked for. And so I got a break. I sent a tape of my reporting. I don't know how much of reporting it was, but I sent it off to El Paso, and I got a job there. But I quickly moved from El Paso to Chicago to Needs, York, and New York was the place I dreamed about working. And I ended up as a national CBS news anchor. It was an incredible experience.

The reach, the resources, the potential that we had to transform the world in a positive direction. The only problem was that my newscasts were full of stories of murder, death, destruction, natural disasters, bank failures, et cetera. Then the recession hit, and it was all these deeply personal stories of people losing their homes, their jobs, and their 401ks. So in a nutshell, I got tired. of telling negative news stories because I could see the depressing ripple effect that it was having

on this country. What I more importantly wanted to understand, though, was how can we, all of us, talk about negative news on TV, around the dinner table, in our businesses, in a way that actually empowers people and helps show them a path forward so that their brains don't get stuck. They actually get activated. So I went to the University of Pennsylvania, and I studied positive psychology under Dr. Martin's Seligman, who's an amazing thinker. He's the founder of the field. And though while there, the thing is, I had this epiphany. And it was epiphany about all of us. We are actually all broadcasters.

So I was a news broadcaster. And I thought that this, you know, power to influence other people was just for broadcasters and professional athletes, someone with a show is like yours. But really what I'm seeing now is that we all of us have this potential to influence other people as parents, as leaders, as friends through the things we say, the things we choose to talk about. And those small choices either can create success or they can hold all of us back. So now I share the research that we do in positive psychology, most of which is, you know, as I mentioned, we're partnered with Ariana Huffington. We're also partnered with academics from Harvard and Yale and Stanford. And I share this research that shows us a compelling case for making small shifts to the way we communicate. When we do so,

We see that it influences every single business and educational outcome. We know how to track from energy to stress to intelligence. And it fuels our long-term levels of happiness, not only ours, but for the people around us as well. Love the story and the fact that you've, like I mentioned, had success in multiple life categories. Now, I have a question for, I'm trying to make this perfectly relatable as well as practical to the average person who's listening. and I don't even like using that term average, but bear with me for a second. So let's say somebody is 35 years old. They're an accountant.

They have a mortgage. They have a spouse. They have three kids. They have two car payments. And life is fine. They make fine money. They don't live paycheck to paycheck. But it's just, okay.

It's just going fine. What are the first few things, practical, actionable tips you would say to a person from that demographic? Well, first and most importantly, what I always encourage people to do is think about what their broadcast is. What's your broadcast? When you're talking to people, what's your top story? How are you devoting your attention?

Are you focusing on the stressful commute, the way the boss is making your life hell, the projects you have to do, or are you seeing, for instance, just in the work domain, the meaning embedded in the work that you do, the colleagues that you connect with deeply and love work. working on projects with, the successes and wins that you have, the resources at your fingertips. Because if our brain devotes resources only to the former category and we don't actually actively take time to focus on the ladder, we literally live in a different reality. We are, our brain's an incredible processor. It can process 40 to 50 bits of information every single second of the day. But the thing is, if we focus on those hassles, complaints, and

problems first. We don't have brain resources left over to focus on all the good stuff, the stuff that actually fuels us. So my question is, what is your broadcast and what are you talking about to other people? When you come home from a day at work is the first thing that you're saying, oh my gosh, today was so stressful. Let me tell you about X, Y, and Z to your spouse or to your family. Or are you saying, and you can have it and had an equally stressful day, but are you making the choice when you first come through the door to start with something positive and meaningful? I call this approach the power lead. The power lead is starting a conversation, email, phone call, meeting.

Anytime you're interacting with somebody by saying something positive. Hey, honey, how was your day? You know, it was great. I had breakfast with my son this morning who's being so cute or, oh, my boss said something really nice to me today about a project last week. Just that simple change to the top of the conversation actually scientifically changes the trajectory potentially of the entire evening. What do you say to your husband when you've had a bad day?

So there are days when stuff just goes wrong and that's okay. That's part of the human experience. So when stuff is going wrong, I come to him and I say, really need to talk to you about something and here's what's up. Can you help me think this through or sometimes you just want to vent, right? You don't really want any answers or anything specific. So sometimes I'll say, I just really need to kind of get this off my chest and tell you happened. But I'm not, I'm not really thinking about things that I need to do right now because maybe I don't want to do anything. So I think I'm really clear with him about what I'm looking for

and what I need. But the question is, are we constantly stressed and constantly bringing those stresses to other people? Because every time we're being negative, I think what happens is that that can wear on the social capital we have with somebody else. You know, like think of it like a bank account. If we're constantly withdrawing from that bank account by going to them with something heavy or a need that we have, then we might actually be depleting that account and not leaving any resources in there. Whereas every time we come and tell them something great going on or share with them a meaningful moment that we've had, no matter how small, that fills that bank account.

And that also encourages the other person to match in kind and tell you great things about their life. And I think you just meet on a different level as opposed to. opposed to playing misery poker. Reminds me a little bit of some of Carol Dweck's work, mindset, the new psychology of success. What are your thoughts on some of the work she's done in her research? She's absolutely phenomenal. She's doing incredible work.

And I think especially for leaders in relation to people on their teams as they're trying to lead them or parents who are trying to help their children be as successful and stress-free as possible through school. What I love about her work is that she shows us that if we can adopt a growth mindset, which is basically this mindset that says, hey, stresses and challenges happen, but I'm open to them, I'm okay with them and I will prevail, then as opposed to a fixed mindset where we don't want to get out of our comfort zone, we don't want to take chances. We just, you know, in school might just want to get as best the grade as possible and maybe not take the hard classes. is when we can adopt that growth mindset, we see our true potential. We see what we're capable of. And also, we realize how malleable the brain is. There are small things that we can do to push our brain from one space to the other and also reap the long-term benefits of that. You know, I can't help but think of a couple people when I hear you talking about broadcasting happiness

and the science behind this is it's my dad and my wife, probably the two most optimistic human beings I've ever met, which for me is a huge bonus to be surrounded by those types of people because my dad's always told me as a leader, it's the duty of the leader to be in a good mood, but to actually be in a good mood and to prime your brain, like some of the things you talk about, power leads prime your brain for high performance.

And that's led to his success. and my wife, that's one of the first things I was attracted to was her attitude in the way she approached her life, whether things looked to be really tough or not. And I think that those qualities just have a magnetic appeal to a lot of people that are just so attractive. I couldn't agree more. And what we now see in the research is that there's three elements to that kind of mindset that become not only attractive, but they also then fuel that the long-term success. Optimism is the number one thing.

It's this belief that negative events are temporary and local and that our behavior matters in the face of challenge. So pessimists might see reality clearly, but they just, because they don't believe their behavior matters, think about taking those action steps to help dig themselves out of a situation that they might be in, whereas optimists are ready to go and ready to take action. The other two I find really fascinating.

So we talked about one near the top, which plays a huge role, which is support provision, this idea of supporting the other people around you. The third one is this, I call it positive engagement. And it's basically our story about stress. When a stressful event happens, does your brain get turned on to its highest potential, or does it go into fight or flight mode? So do you view stress as a challenge or as a threat? our brain responds completely differently depending in which category we are.

And since we know that when our amygdala, our fighter flight center is activated, it actually steals brain resources from the front of our brain. And since we know that, we know that that's actually not the best place we can be in. So if we can transform how we view stressful events, it's not saying we advocate going out and finding more stress, but when they happen, just to say, okay, I am ready to, for this. I can do this. I can be capable in this situation because I have these resources, successes, wins, relationships that I can leverage that transforms the outcomes that result from

the situation. Really interesting. I'm thinking of dealing with not necessarily negative people, but dealing with people who have taker type tendencies, something Adam, the term Adam Grant talks about. there's givers, takers, and matchers in the world. And sometimes it's, for me, personally, I struggle when I see takers have those brief moments of success. And we all probably know some of those types of people because in the long run, takers are going to lose. But in the short run, they'll win sometimes. And it's really frustrating for me to see that happen.

How do you apply some of the things you've learned to those types of people who maybe have some, they're fakers, they take, they know who to. to fake it to in order to get these maybe a promotion or to get recognition that they don't fully deserve. How do you handle those types of people and stay positive? I think that can be an extremely frustrating situation. We've all been in it, especially when someone is in a very similar position to us. And we're not an official competition with them, but it can feel like it. But, you know, one of the things I always talk about with clients is that authenticity is key through all of this because people can smell a rat, right? So I can tell

people, hey, listen, bring your most positive self, but if they're not bringing their most authentic positive self to the situation, then no one's going to believe them. I mean, they might one off, you know, one time, but in the long run, people are going to know your game. And I think that's the same thing with takers. Like you mentioned, they might get recognition. in the short term, but it'll be brief, and that light will fizzle and whatever, you know, but I think for long-term sustainable success and long-term sustainable happiness and connection to other people, the who you bring to the table really matters, and that's ultimately who people are going to connect with. I mean, you know, people often ask me, what, who's more powerful

in our battle for culture at work, the positive people or the negative people, and I know what they're thinking about because I've had this question so many times that they're thinking about that one really negative awful person at work right that comes into the meeting someone presents an idea and before they can even finish that person has just destroyed it with all their negative comments what we find in the research is a surprising answer it's not the most positive or negative person that's more powerful it's actually the person who's most expressive of that mindset so you as a positive person an optimistic person it the The more you are expressive of your positive mindset in a group setting, the more you actually

tip the scales in your favor. By modeling that behavior, you get others to feel licensed to do it as well. And the more people that speak up, ultimately, the higher the likelihood of drowning out that negative person and having a positive culture at work. What about the four Cs, deliver bad news better? Can you expand on that aspect in that part of your book? Yeah, so the four Cs is an approach to when negative stuff strikes, how do you respond to other people in a way that can actually leave your relationship better off than it ever was before. One of the most important Cs, I think, is this idea of having compassion for the situation, compassion for other people.

You know, I used an example in the book that was about how when people were, when there was, you know, restructuring and. layoffs and uncertainty at a company, how the leader came in there and he said, you know, he talked to his employees like human beings and had compassion for what was happening, whether they were losing their jobs or not or losing their bonuses. I mean, he just was a real human being with them. And I think that that can go so far. So I detail the four Cs, give context, have compassion, build social capital, and how to leverage those in a way that makes you a, has, gives you stronger results than before. What about generating optimism around you, and as you coined the phrase, going viral with it?

Yeah, so we did a really interesting study with Training Magazine, and I think it ultimately provided a very hopeful picture for all of us, which is that 31% of people at any given organization, because we did this cross industry, are optimistic. they just don't speak up about it. So if they feel positive about a project, they don't say anything. If they think that a new hire is actually doing a great job, they keep their mouth shut. And why that actually sounds hopeful is that the hard part is getting people from negative to positive, I think. The easier part is if someone's already a positive, getting them to speak up about it, it's much easier to do that. And like we mentioned, I mentioned earlier, modeling that behavior of expressing the good, praising people, asking questions about what went right on the last project, those kind of things get people to be more vocal about what they're thinking.

So I think that, you know, ultimately, like, so I mentioned in the book about going viral, going viral is getting positive behaviors and ideas and habits to spread. And very effective examples I've seen have been someone who is, you know, who's a manager, for instance, and starts a meeting off by saying, I'd like to spend the next five minutes talking about one way that your colleague in this room or outside of this room has made your job easier over the past month. That five-minute piece of conversation can transform how someone approaches work for the next month because they hear that their work is valued. Their contribution is valued and they feel appreciated. Another example I've spoken with before, but it's actually been a while. This is, I think, people who have children. A practice we like to employ from time to time at the dinner table is to have each child speak and compliment their siblings. So, for example, go to one of your kids and say, okay, you're going to speak about your brother or your sister.

And I want you to list two things that you really love about them, things that you think they're great at that you love. And depending on their age, the things they can say are sometimes extremely funny, but that actually adds to it. And to see the look on the faces of each of them, both the ones saying it, the smile and certainly the one who's receiving the compliment from a sibling who sometimes, you know, siblings fight from time to time. But to see the look on their face when they hear that compliment that maybe they haven't heard directly before. It's incredible. I would encourage people do it if you have multiple siblings in the home because it can have such a powerful effect on the children. And it's something that it only takes a few minutes to go around the table and to do those things. And also for the spouses, for you to say it to each other with your children in the room so they hear you complimenting your wife or your husband.

It can be another powerful thing to show what love is. just to model that that behavior for them, I think, can be very powerful and a thing that kids need to see. Yeah, absolutely. I heard a wonderful story of how this father, he was a CEO of a major company. He sold it. And that night made $100 million. And that same night, he had a panic attack. And so his wife said, what is going on with you?

And he said, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just absolutely miserable. and this should be a high moment of my life. And so she said, let's go for a walk. So it's midnight. And they go for a walk around a track at the school right by their house. She says, let's just go ahead and list our gratitudes right now.

He said, okay. And so they start listing all the things they're grateful for, simple things, right? My child's healthy. We have a roof over our head. We're able to walk right now. And they kept that practice up. They would go on nightly walks for a long period of time. And then they decided to import it to the dinner table so their children could actually be part of the practice.

And then cut to a few months later, he gets a phone call. He's, by the way, doing much better, feeling better. Overall, just, you know, has reconnected with the meaning in his life. But he gets his phone call and a father of another girl in his daughter's class, his teenage daughter's class, says, I've got to talk to you. He says, what? What did my daughter do now? said, well, we had the sleepover, you remember at our house the other night, and your daughter was down in the basement with about 10 other girls. She decided that the girls were being mean to each other at school, and so the best thing to combat that was to get everyone to sit down in a circle and have them go around and basically do what you were suggesting, compliment one another, say all the nice things about one another, so that people felt valued.

Anyway, he said he, I mean, he said he was just so blown away because, well, first of all, he wasn't going to have to discipline his daughter or anything. But he was also blown away because he realized the power of modeling this kind of behavior at home. The whole time his daughter had been rolling her eyes, she wasn't into it. And then she goes and brings that positive behavior to a group of her friends. And that is, I think, what, you know, exactly the kind of stuff that I'm talking about when I say how to get those positive behaviors to go viral. I love it. It reminds me a little bit of the five-minute journal. I don't know if you've heard of that, but it's something I write in every morning and every night, but basically it takes five minutes, thus the name. And all you write in the morning is three things you're grateful for, three things that would make the day great, and then some positive affirmations about yourself, and then do it again at night to view the day. What happened? Did you accomplish those three goals to make the day great? And what, what, what, what, what did you potentially miss on that you could then improve the next day? And that simple behavior of implementing it into your day, five minutes in the morning and

five minutes a night, I would encourage people to do it. I spoke with the guy who created the book at a conference I went to and it's incredible just to hear him talk about the passion he has and why he created it. And it's had a big effect on my life because it's very simple, like a lot of things, but it's had, it's like the compound effect is brick by brick every single day of constantly writing down what I'm grateful for and what a great day looks like. And some of those positive affirmations is a really, from a psychological perspective, is very powerful. Absolutely.

And you're changing the way your brain functions. If you do that, keep that practice up. And there was, there were two studies that I just find fascinating. One done on 80-year-old grumpy pessimists, had them just count their gratitudes, three new and unique things they were grateful for each day. After just 14 days, they already felt better. They were testing instead of moderate-level pessimists as low-level pessimists, so their brain started to change. If they kept that practice up for six months, they actually found that their brain had transformed significantly, and they were testing as low-to-moderate-level optimists, which is amazing.

And then the other study that I think just blows me out of the water is the one that looks at people who are suffering. from chronic neuromuscular diseases, asked to journal just for two minutes a day about a positive experience from the last 24 hours. So, I mean, you know, journaling for two minutes and just trying to remember every detail you can remember. I mean, it's four lines, five lines in a journal, just really quick. Anyway, the people who had kept that practice up for six months, at that point, doctors were able to drop their pain medication in half.

Wow. Yeah. So anyone who thinks that we are just a result of our genes or our environment has, I encourage, you know, I encourage them to take a look at the research that's coming out in the last 10 years because it shows a completely different picture. We have so much ability to transform our brain, even if we're not 20 anymore, and even if we think that our brain has been pruning and all that, just by doing these small habits, it can have a transformative effect. I love it. I got a question around goal setting. What is your approach and your process when it comes to setting goals or do you or don't you? How does that work for you? I do. I've been very scientific about it. I figured, yeah. So I read pretty much all the goal setting research while getting the master's in positive psychology. And the formula ultimately is very simple. You have your big goals. You absolutely should have your big goals and dreams. But in order to, to achieve them, it's really important to break them down into the smallest, manageable goal to start and accomplish that. I mean, I'm talking, you want to start a business? Print your business cards.

Literally, that's it. That's your first goal. You know, just really, really small because what you're trying to do is psychologically you give your brain a win, which propels you to take the next step, whatever that is, and the next step after that. when we have these big goals, oftentimes our brain gets so overwhelmed if we don't break it down into those small goals. Sean looks at that research a lot in the happiness advantage and encourages everyone to take the Zoro's circle approach. Zorro was swinging from the chandeliers and he's a swordman and he was trying to defend huge pieces of, you know, huge areas.

and what the sword master said was just basically just defend a two-foot radius around you and work on that. And so he did. He got very good at it. And so slowly, slowly, slowly, he expanded out the circle until he finally was able to, you know, then swing from the chandeliers and defend 20 feet radius. But what that reminds us is that sometimes it's good to start with the, you know, the smallest manageable goal and then extend your circle of an influence. out from there and putting one foot in front of the other and that's how you achieve your goals. Creating momentum for yourself because I think building that snowball and keep rolling it, it will build.

But you got to get it started and you got to keep achieving, I think, small goals along the way. It makes a lot of sense where you're saying, Michelle. So I love it. Michelle, hey, I got one more question before we get gone. But by the way, this has been fantastic. I love it. And I could talk to you all day about this stuff because I'm so into. it. But my question is around, you know, before we started recording, I told you briefly about

my show and the whole purpose behind it. I love the art and science of leadership. I love people who are actively curious and trying to learn more and improve themselves and simply only compare themselves versus their former self. So every day you're finding ways to improve. And I'm curious, when you hear the phrase learning leader, what's the first thing that you think of? I think of someone who isn't necessarily in a traditional role of leadership, but realizes that they have incredible influence over the people around them just by showing up with their true beautiful selves. And the learning part makes me think that this is someone who has a love of learning, that they want to, they want to learn new and different things every day in a way that's aspirational, in a way that helps them be. the best version of himself that day and then grow from there. I absolutely think, you know, learning something new and interesting and fascinating every single day

is really what makes life worth living because then you can fuel your own life, your own happiness, and do that for the people around you. And, I mean, really is, I don't think there's anything better. I love it. Thank you so much, Michelle. Where would you send everybody to find more about you online? Oh, so the easiest way, and actually it's something very fun, I think, for everybody is to go to Broadcastinghappiness.com.

And the reason I send you there is there is, there's of course, information about me and my book. But there's also something called the Success Scale, which is a free 30 question, three to five minute assessment that helps you test yourself, if you're interested in learning and growing, on those three greatest predictors of long-term levels of success. So I encourage everyone to go to Broadcastinghappiness.com, take a, you know, take it, it, try it out. It spits out your scores and an interpretive report and then give you some ideas on ways if you would like to work on anyone. If your scores, the ways you can do it. And again, the book is Broadcasting Happiness, the Science of Igniting and Sustaining

Positive Change. I'd encourage people to get it and read it and embrace it. I think it can have a massive impact on your life if you do. So Michelle, thank you again so much for being here. and I certainly want to continue our dialogue as we both progress. Me too. I'd love to. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh, definitely.

Thanks, Michelle. This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learningleadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.