“The solution isn’t to do away with dreaming ... Rather, it’s making the most of our fantasies by brushing them up against the very thing most of us are taught to ignore or diminish: the obstacles that stand in our way.” - Gabriele Oettingen Professor Gabriele Oettingen tears through traditional notions of motivation and success. Her 20 years of research focus on the perils of positive thinking, and the science of how focusing on obstacles has been proven to help people achieve their goals. Gabriele is the author of more than 100 articles and book chapters on thinking about the future and the control of cognition, emotion, and behavior. She is now a professor of psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg. In this episode we cover: - Her WOOP framework for engineering motivation, clarity, followthrough - Why dreaming makes you less motivated - Why dreamers are prone to depression - Identifying the correct obstacles in your way You can check out her book Rethinking Positive Thinking as well as her website mywooplife.org

This episode focuses on tools of emotional resilience. I’ve met few people like Marc - he is so open and honest about his emotions that it is refreshing. It’s easy to see why. Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor at Yale University. His research is on the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and both academic and workplace performance. Marc is the lead developer of RULER, a Pre-K to high school evidence-based, whole-school approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by over 2,000 schools. He has published 125 scholarly articles and consults regularly with corporations like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google on integrating emotional intelligence principles into employee training and product design and is co-founder of Oji Life Lab, a digital emotional intelligence learning system for businesses. You can check out his app Mood Meter App (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mood-meter-building-your-emotional/id825930113) to log and respond to your own emotional changes throughout the day.

Having more choices is good right? Barry Schwartz thinks otherwise. "In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice , tackles one of the great mysteries of modern life: Why is it that societies of great abundance — where individuals are offered more freedom and choice (personal, professional, material) than ever before — are now witnessing a near-epidemic of depression? Conventional wisdom tells us that greater choice is for the greater good, but Schwartz argues the opposite: He makes a compelling case that the abundance of choice in today's western world is actually making us miserable. " In this episode we explore making choices on: - dating - prioritization - career - eliminating choice - decision making By the end I had a practical framework for making choices in my life and tools to think less about low priorities.

What motivates us? How can we motivate ourselves? Our guest today is a legend in the psychology world, Dan Pink. He’s often credited for paving the paved the path for authors of other character trait oriented books, including many of the authors who have been on this podcast. And he’s so well regarded that at this point if I see an amazing education organization I just assume he’s on the board. In his groundbreaking book, "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us", Dan uses 50 years of behavioral science to overturn the conventional wisdom about human motivation and offer a more effective path to high performance. This episode is incredibly practical and I’ve since used it as my go-to-guide for when I feel like I’m in a slump. Dan talks on how to design your habits, routines, commitments, self-talk, and projects to increase your drive. So you want to be more motivated, this episode is for you. And, of you are a manager you may want to jump to minute (31) where Dan shares his top 5 tips for what organizations can do to increase their employee motivation. It’s incredibly practical and will leave you with new techniques to be inspired.

Were you ever in a classroom that felt too crowded? Maybe 35 students, 50, 100? One man teaches a lot more students than that - he teaches over 320,000 students. What a headache! But not for one person. Who is he? Rob Percival. He’s one of the best selling online instructors of all time. His uDemy iOS course has reached hundreds of thousands of students. We discuss why Rob believes his courses caught on, his teaching philosophy, the story of his career and how he hopes to change the world. This episode helped me rethink my teaching career, and how to cope with unexpected dramatic success and impact. In this episode, I’m joined with Make School student Unathi Choco.

How can you cultivate a generous attitude? In this episode, we have Matthieu Richard, a Buddhist monk in Nepal with TedTalks on happiness and altruism that have over 8 million views. In this episode, we deconstruct how to cultivate this urge in our own hearts to be altruistic. We also talk about Matthieu's journey from the intellectual elites in France to a monastery in Nepal, meditation, self-love, how to evaluate the effectiveness of an altruistic act, habits to achieve a meditative mindset throughout the day, and why some reporters call Matthieu “the happiest man in the world” but he disagrees. Our talk helped me think about how to push the boundaries of my own giving, how to better delight people in my life. We also talk about how giving can make me happier. Matthieu's new meditation app (https://www.imagineclarity.com/) may also be the tool you need to find peace. Alright, here’s Matthieu.

Today’s episode stars William Ury, author of Getting to Yes. The book is an international bestseller with over twelve million copies in print and publication in thirty-four languages. Ury is also the founder of the Harvard Program on Negotiation and along with Jimmy Carter, founded the International Negotiation Network. And as Ury mentions we are always negotiating so... His tactics are relevant for job seekers, business deals, and even to reach an agreement with a loved one. In this episode, we talk through a linear process to prepare for a negotiation. The step by step way you should understand what you want, communicate it, and respect the other person’s perspective. He also shares a fascinating story about how he helped two billionaires resolve a conflict that was called the “the biggest cross-continental war room showdown in history”, and how a few hours of preparation can make you thousands of extra dollars. I can say personally, Wiliam’s insights have saved me tons of stress and worry during the difficult conversations in my own life. Let’s go!

How can we design projects to optimize our learning? Bob Lenz and the Buck Institute has answers. His name may sound familiar - a previous guest on this podcast, Tom Vander Ark, recommended his work. This topic of planning projects could be relevant to you in many ways. It could be relevant if you are a manager designing projects for employees, a teacher designing projects for students, or even you designing projects for yourself. The episode helped me design my work in order to increase my motivation, incorporate expert feedback, contextualize my learning, and communicate my expectations to teammates better. This episode is dense and jam-packed but like any project, it’s ultimately rewarding. Oy I feel like a cheezy teacher now. I hope that this podcast inspires learning for you as much as it did for me! Let’s go!

How do you navigate your quest to live a full life?   How do you prioritize work versus family, stretch yourself while maintaining your wellness? Acclaimed civil rights activist Noël Gordon Jr has a unique perspective. He’s not trying to optimize for career or happiness. He points somewhere else. What's most surprising: Noël is incredibly accomplished, and he says his focus on other priorities has driven his success. At 24, Noël won the employee of the year award while serving as Senior Program Specialist at the Human Rights Campaign, America's leading LGBTQ civil rights organization. Noël has advised the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Delegation to the United Nations on issues affecting LGBTQ people, and his work has been mentioned or quoted in more than 300 publications nationwide, including USA Today and Teen Vogue. This episode changed my life. I hope it changes yours too.

The right question can change everything. It can turn a friend into a lover, a problem into a solution, confusion into understanding. It finds your answer. Warren Berger, journalist and author of the book A More Beautiful Question, has been studying questioning techniques for decades, and most recently how questioning was used to spark innovation at companies like Google, Netflix, IDEO, and Airbnb. In this episode we chat about the principles of powerful questions and end the episode trying to intentionally make each other uncomfortable. So, without further adoo, Warren Berger on how questions can help you upgrade your human operating system… Produced with love by Make School and Positivity Dan. Join thousands of the world's brightest computer science students at Make School (www.makeschool.com).

Tom Vander Ark is a titan in the world of education technology. Few have experience as wide and deep as he. His career journey ... - Superintendent of Federal Way Public schools. - Managed $3.5 billion dollars and one-on-one with Bill Gates as the Executive Director of Education for the Gates Foundation. - President of X Prize, an organization that runs multimillion dollar contests for innovation in learning, exploration, energy & environment, global development, and life sciences. - Director of INACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. - Partner at Learn Capital, an education VC firm that’s invested millions in companies like General Assembly, Edmodo, Minerva, AltSchool, Coursera, and Make School. -Runs one of the most popular education blogs: Getting Smart [lesson] Given his 360 view of education I wanted to get down to the basics. How to teach. How to engage students, how to motivate students, help them direct their own learning. We also cover the big picture on where innovation is happening in education, the biggest impact per dollar and how we as learners can benefit from all of this. It’s jam-packed. The episode is an index into many of Tom’s favorite education thought leaders, methods and students. That’s just the start!