~ a friend of mine
Universe
~ a friend of mine
Author: Senia
~ a friend of mine
What I Want to Be When I Grow Up
“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”
~ E. E. Cummings
Which is your favorite room in your house?
I spent a lot of time in my study this weekend, writing a paper… and my answer is:
MY STUDY!!!!! I love, love, love having my bookshelves filled with books, and organized by subject. I love having it clean in there, just one simple desk, and being able to sit at that desk. I’m a huge fan of the window and that it’s often breezy in there despite it being summer and quite quite warm in general. That’s all.
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Would love to hear your answers! (We’ll still have the Friday question, but this week we’ll have this Wed question too). :) I’m actually especially interested in this question because I wonder which rooms you guys really love the most – I wonder if it’ll be a range of rooms, or if people will have similar views on which room.
Please Design a House – WAIT!
In yesterday’s post, I showed you some assessments. I assume your first question is, “Well, which assessment should I use?” It depends on your goal. Not to get too philosophical, but many things in life depend on your goal. Entire interpretations of situations can vary depending on your goal. Here’s a mini-story that I really like.
There is supposedly a trick question that comes up again and again during Microsoft interviews: “If you had to design a house, what would it look like? Please use the whiteboard.†The person who moves straight to the whiteboard and draws a rectangle and continues drawing detailed designs is a goner. Why? Because after he finishes the house, the interviewer says, “Oh, I didn’t tell you? It’s for a family of twelve 48-foot-tall giraffes.â€
So, it depends on your goal.
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BTW, this mini-story is quite a bit briefer than usual stories on Tuesdays, so enjoy the respite. :)
Introducing … ASSESSMENTS!
If you decide that you’re going to
* get more organized in order to have more peace of mind
* spend more time with your family and friends in order to be more relaxed
* stress less
* increase your happiness…
how will you know once you’re succeeding in these resolves?
There’s a simple idea in Positive Psychology that you should be able to measure how you are progressing in terms of increasing your happiness, well-being, life satisfaction. One large way that these items are measured is through self-reporting.
This means that if you were to start working with a Positive Psychology coach to improve your enjoyment of life, work-life balance, or productivity at work, that pretty early on the coach would ask you, “Would you like to get some baseline measurements at the start?” And it makes sense to. I recommend it. This way, you have a sense of how you acted and reacted before you started actively increasing your life happiness or life satisfaction. In a way, it’s like measuring your weight before going on an exercise-and-moderated-eating plan. (BTW, you’ll notice that these assessments are not usually called quizzes or tests because that would imply that there is a ‘best way’ to be or a ‘best score’ to get.)
My favorite thing about these particular assessments is that they describe you. After taking them, I’ve often been able to crystalize into words some things that I may never have thought of before about myself, and I hear this comment frequently from other people that have taken assessments too.
And, finally, if you still need a boost as to why you should go to this page and take them … THEY’RE FUN! :)
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing up more about what they mean and what info from the assessments you can really use productively. Here is the great site where you can find assessments for yourself and your friends: the Authentic Happiness site.
Here are the assessments I most recommend (you’ll need to create a login at that site):
* VIA Signature Strengths Survey – this shows you your main character strengths – VERY INTERESTING; assessment by Peterson and Seligman (takes 20 minutes to complete).
* Optimism Scale – This shows you how you interpret good and bad events, reference: Learned Optimism; assessment by Seligman (32 questions, takes a few minutes).
* Satisfaction with Life Scale – Simple assessment of subjective well-being. Here is an article that highlights Ed Diener, the lead author of this assessment scale (5 questions).
* General Happiness Questionnaire – This is actually my favorite one of all of them, Lyubomirsky’s and Lepper’s assessment (4 questions). I’d love to know what you guys get on this little survey!
Enjoy! And I’ll write more about these later.
APA Format
Hi guys, I’m writing a paper which will be in APA (American Psychological Association) format, and here are the two sources I’ve found the most useful:
* How to Format an APA Paper from Mark Plonsky‘s site at the University of Wisconsin.
- Very useful description of what sections, what formating, and what content to include in an APA style paper.
* How to Cite References in an APA Paper from the University of Minnesota site.
- Great summary of how to cite references for the end of your APA-format paper.
KEYWORDS: Psychology, Writing, Format, APA, APA Format
Psychology of Success (in progress)
This is a post in progress, just to let you know that there are some findings about psychology and success.
Here, Phil Zimbardo writes this great paper when he is APA President in 2004: “Does Psychology Make a Significant Difference in Our Lives?” (this is also a very interesting history of psychology). Also, here is the site that was born from this paper: www.psychologymatters.org, which illustrates in which fields psychology has made some significant inroads and found results that people can and do implement (I like the post here on multitasking).
And here is a nice 2002 Forbes article on the “Psychology of Success”.
Tanabata – Make a Wish Today!
Hello, today is the seventh day of the seventh month. This is one of my favorite holidays! TANABATA, meaning “Star Festival.”
If you make a wish, as long as it doesn’t rain where you are, your wish will come true. Here’s the story from this site:
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Two stars, Weaver Princess Star and Herd Boy Star were in love. The Weaver Princess Star was very good at weaving, and her father was a heavenly king. Although the Herd Boy Star was a boy of lowly birth, the king, kind-hearted, let them marry. But because they were in love so much, they forgot to do their work. The Weaver Princess Star did not weave the cloth and the Herd Boy Star did not take care of the herds of sheep. The king became so angry, that he decided they must be separated. They were told to live at the opposite sides of the Milky Way, the Sparkling River of the Heavens. They were only to meet on the night of July 7th, when they cross the sky.
If it rains on July 7th, then the two stars, Orihime the weaver princess and Hikoboshi the herd boy, will not be able to meet for another year. So children and adults in Japan write down their wishes on this day on colorful origami paper and hang up their wishes on bamboo trees.
If it does not rain on this year, then the two stars meet and everyone who made a wish has his wish come true! But if it rains, then the Milky Way, the river of the heavens, overflows, and the two cannot cross to meet each other on this one day of the year. People in Japan also wear the summer yukata (see further down the page here) and dance for the festival.
The particular two stars that this story describes are Orihime the princess weaver star called Altair in the constellation Aquila and the Hikoboshi herd boy star called Vega in the constellation Lyra. Altair and Vega are two of the three vertices of the Summer Triangle, which can be seen best in the summer months when it is almost directly overhead. Here are some other Tanabata sites: a children’s version, probably the most in-depth description, the full version, and a simple great description.
WHERE: Japan
WHEN: July 7th, every year.
Who are you happiest around?
Who are you most happy around? What are the qualities of that person? What is that person like?
* Adventurous people, confident & crazy people!
* Optimists
* Dreamers
* People who love a sport, their job, or some topic!
When you read this question… you may have thought of a person or of some people. What is it about being around that person or those people makes you so happy?
* Feeling comfortable makes me happy
* Doing new things that I might otherwise not do makes me happy
* When talking feels good, that makes me happy (also, when I learn new things about the world!)
This is my first time posting a two-part question! Here goes:
a) Who are you most happy around?
b) What is it about being around that person or those people makes you so happy?
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On Fridays, I post questions because I love questions. I would love it if you feel like answering the questions! Thanks. (I’m a big fan of privacy also, so if you don’t want to put your name in, just use an initial or just fill in the letter “A†and we’ll know it’s anonymous, and if you don’t want to put your email address for privacy reasons, just put mine – it’s at the link ‘email me’ above.)
… in the Details
God is in the details.
~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect
When I’m writing, I am concentrating almost wholly on concrete detail: the color a room is painted, the way a drop of water rolls off a wet leaf after a rain.
~ Donna Tartt, writer
In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a leitmotiv.
~ Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer
One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite – that particular peach is but a detail.
~ Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor
Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house – the color of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows. The notes are the bricks and the mortar of the house.
~ Benjamin Britten, conductor
As a journalist, the details always tell the story.
~ James McBride, writer and musician