Positive Psych Workbook

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Move From
Surviving to
Thriving:
The Positive Psychology
Workbook for
Challenging Times
First Edition
Bruce W. Smith, Ph.D.

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Dear Reader,
This workbook is freely offered to anyone who wants to
use it to create a life of greater joy, happiness, meaning,
and fulfillment in spite of the challenges we often face.
You have my permission to use anything in this
workbook as long as you use it for increasing human
happiness and well-being and make it as freely available as
you can.
If you would like a printed copy of this workbook, it is
available at minimal not for profit cost of approximately
$6.00, go to:
Bruce W. Smith on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-W-
Smith/e/B078T27V58?ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vu00_i0
Please feel free to email us at cappnmusa@gmail.com if

you have any questions or if the above link is not working.
Warmly,
Bruce W. Smith
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Kindle Direct Publishing

Seattle, WA, USA
ISBN: 9798571856447
Copyright © 2020
Bruce W. Smith
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Table of Contents
Preface....................................................................................... 7
Acknowledgements ................................................................... 9
How to Use this Workbook ..................................................... 11
Part 1 - Basic Training for Your Best Life .............................. 13
Chapter 1: A Call to Adventure .............................................................. 15
Chapter 2: What Do You Want Most?................................................... 23
Chapter 3:How Can You Make It Happen? ........................................... 31
Chapter 4:Mindfulness and Acceptance .................................................... 37
Chapter 5: Resilience and Stress-Related Growth...................................... 43
Chapter 6: Wisdom and Creativity........................................................... 50
Part 2 – Bringing Out Your Best............................................. 57
Chapter 7: Discovering Your Best ............................................................ 59
Chapter 8: Authenticity ........................................................................... 67
Chapter 9: Perseverance ............................................................................ 75
Chapter 10: Courage................................................................................ 83
Chapter 11: Self-Efficacy ......................................................................... 89
Chapter 12: Self-Control.......................................................................... 96
Part 3 – Bringing Out the Best Around You ..........................103
Chapter 13: Social Intelligence................................................................ 105
Chapter 14: Love................................................................................... 113
Chapter 15: Kindness ............................................................................ 121
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Chapter 16: Community Positive Psychology ........................................... 127

Chapter 17: Fairness and Justice ............................................................ 133
Chapter 18: Forgiveness ......................................................................... 140
Part 4 – Creating the Best Possible Future ............................147
Chapter 19: Creating a Better Future .................................................... 149
Chapter 20: Optimism and Hope .......................................................... 157
Chapter 21:Humor ................................................................................ 165
Chapter 22: Appreciation and Gratitude ............................................... 173
Chapter 23: Meaning and Purpose ......................................................... 180
Chapter 24: Review and Celebration ...................................................... 187
Appendix A: Additional Readings .........................................195
Appendix B: Positive Psychology Activities ..........................197
Appendix C: Links to Author Videos .....................................199
Appendix D: Links to Special Videos ................................... 200
Appendix E: Well-Being Survey ........................................... 202
Appendix F: Pleasant Activities List..................................... 204
Appendix G: Strength Spotting Tool .....................................210
Appendix H: Relationship Appreciative Inquiry ................... 211
Appendix I: Acts of Kindness Planner ...................................213
Appendix J: Community Cause Inventory .............................213
Appendix K: Guidelines for the PATH Process ................... 224
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Preface
This workbook is a labor of love and free offering to all who might benefit from it. It is
based on my gratitude for years of being able to teach positive psychology and especially to
the students and teaching assistants who have taught me so much. It is my attempt with the
help of the Center for Applied Positive Psychology in Albuquerque, New Mexico to offer as
many people as possible the best of what positive psychology, and broader psychology and
science, have to offer each one of us. Positive psychology is the science of happiness and
what makes life worth living and it is bringing the power of modern science to enable all of
us make the most of our lives and live them to the fullest.
I first taught positive psychology at the University of New Mexico in 2005 and it quickly
became my favorite part of everything I do! Since that first class of 30 students, the class
has continued to grow to include two face-to-face classes of 400 students every year and
another 100-200 students in an online course developed in 2018. The course has been voted
the best class at our university more than once and, most important, I have seen how much
of a difference it can make in the lives of students and in my own life. Since 2016, we have
collected data on how students do during the class and have consistently found that
students have significant increases in happiness, well-being, and resilience and decreases in
anxiety, depression, and stress.
In the past few years, several community leaders and I joined together to form the
Center for Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) whose mission it is to share the benefits of
positive psychology to as many people in as many communities as possible. This past
summer, in response to the uncertainty and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and
the related social, economic, and mental health problems so many were experiencing, the
people at CAPP and I decided to create a four week “positive psychology challenge” that
took the best of what we know about positive psychology to make it available to others.
This challenge, as captured in this workbook, includes what I and other in CAPP have
found to be most beneficial in our teaching, research, and personal experience.
Because the initial response to our pilot online challenge was so positive, we decided to
make its benefits as broadly available as possible by creating a workbook to enable anyone
to do it whenever they wanted at their own pace. The positive psychology challenge in this
workbook contains 24 chapters with lessons that represent the best of positive psychology,
the videos that we created to help communicate the lessons, other videos that have been
highly rated by hundreds of students, questions to help you reflect, learn, and grow, and
most important, the activities and exercises that more than anything will enable you to bring
positive psychology to life. Positive psychology is not a spectator sport, but a participatory
sport that we can all take part in and it’s only when we do that we see what it has to offer.
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Now here comes the best news of all. Positive psychology is not just about surviving, it is
about thriving even during the most challenging and stressful times of our lives. Rather than
avoiding or denying the bad things that come our way, positive psychology can enable us to
face them, prevail, and use them as opportunities for learning and growth. It is for each and
every day of our life – even when we are under stress, going through a hard time, or trying
to deal with loss, failure, or rejection. In fact, you might even say that positive psychology is
especially for these times because it enables us to be at our best in all circumstances and
make the most of our lives whatever we are going through. More than anything else, the
positive psychology that you can come to experience in this workbook will enable you to
bring out the best in yourself so that you can live your life to the fullest.
So welcome aboard! You are on a wonderful journey and what has to be one of life’s
greatest adventures. All we ask is that you be open to what you can learn and, most
important, try it out for yourself and see what happens!
Bruce W. Smith
December 7, 2020
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Acknowledgements
I began the Preface by staying how grateful I was for the years of being able to teach
positive psychology and all of the students and teaching assistants who have taught me so
much. Now is the time to acknowledge my gratitude for those who have contributed and
helped most with the development of this workbook.
First, I am grateful to John Freisinger who took the initiative last summer to invite me to
work with him and our group to develop a positive psychology challenge. Despite the fact
that we were meeting on Zoom in the throes of a global pandemic, his entrepreneurial spirit
was a catalyst that got us going. Soon after, I started writing lessons and creating videos and
John first put it all together on an online platform called Vimify that enabled us to pilot the
challenge together.
Second, I am grateful to Tanya Kallan, who I have had the great fortune of having as
both a student and later as a teaching assistant for positive psychology classes. Tanya loved
the idea of putting our initial challenge into a workbook and volunteered to do what has
been the great majority of the work in formatting and putting it together. Moreover, she has
done this during a global pandemic and her first semester of graduate school! As anyone
who meets her can readily see, she is a shining light who naturally embodies the best of
positive psychology. She is contagious with hope, humor, and good cheer and without her
this workbook would not have been possible!
Third, John, Tanya, and I are grateful to the Center for Applied Positive Psychology
(CAPP), whose mission it is to share the wealth of positive psychology as broadly as
possible to both individuals and communities. CAPP consists of a rich and diverse group of
community leaders in positive psychology including Paul Smith, a co-founder and leader of
CAPP, who taught positive psychology to hundreds of employees at Sandia National
Laboratories for many years. In addition, Drs. Steve Poland, Swasti Vohra, and Clara Farah
are psychologists who have taught and/or are teaching positive psychology in various forms
and settings. We are also grateful to Kelly Ward and Joe Dennis who have years of rich
experience bringing the benefits of positive psychology approaches to organizational and
work settings that have affected countless employees and their friends and families. Finally,
there are many others in CAPP who have provided support, feedback, and encouragement
including Alvin Phan, Matthew Higgins, Mary Lemmond, Nancy Fitzgerald, and Marcia
Mikulak.
Fourth, we are all grateful for our students and those we have been able to get to know
and work with for giving us the opportunity to learn together about what can really make us
happy and our lives worth living. There is no better way to learn positive psychology than
seeing it in the lives of other people and there is probably nothing that does more to inspire
and bring us hope. We have seen first generation college students who against all odds
graduated from college and went on to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, and counselors.
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We have seen people confronted by stress, illness, and trauma who have been able to learn,
grow, and benefit from the stress they experienced and give something back to the world.
We have seen how people of all ages, occupations, countries, and cultures can benefit from
what they learn and use it to move their lives to a new and unexpected higher level of joy
and happiness. We are grateful to all of these for what they have taught and shown to us
and for how it will enable this workbook to come to life for you.
Finally, we are most grateful to you for taking the time to read this and make this
challenge a part of your life. We hope that you will come to experience the joy and gratitude
that we have in learning about and sharing the wealth of the growing discoveries in positive
psychology. We wish you all the best in making the most of your lives and living them to
the fullest. Thanks for joining us on the journey!
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How to Use this Workbook

We are so happy you are taking the opportunity to utilize this workbook to help you
overcome obstacles and achieve your best life! As you work through the chapters, you will
develop a set of tools which use the science and power of positive psychology to your
advantage to empower you to thrive – even when in the midst of life’s challenges.
Before you get started, we wanted to give you some suggestions about how to use
this workbook to best fit with your life and schedule.
As Bruce Smith noted in the Preface, this workbook grew out of the positive psychology
challenge that he developed with the help of John Freisinger and the Center for Applied
Positive Psychology (CAPP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This workbook is something
that you can use for yourself, use as part of a group, or lead others in using. The lessons are
presented in an order in which they build upon each other. The sections are: Basic Training
for Your Best Life (Part 1), Bringing Out Your Best (Part 2), Bringing Out the Best Around
You (Part 3), and Creating the Best Possible Future (Part 4).
Since you can move through the topics at whatever pace works best for you and
your schedule, you have several options in completing this workbook. You may
decide to do the whole workbook in four weeks as a jump start for a new year (or anytime
you want to quickly dive in or do a refresher). Or you may want to take it more slowly and
complete one, two, or three chapters each week. A slower pace could be a great way to fully
savor each topic and dive deeper into each concept. Doing two chapters each week would
take three months to complete the workbook. You might find this to be a great way to build
new habits. Another idea would be to establish a weekly Cultivating My Best Life Day, for
example on a Saturday or Sunday, where you can savor a new chapter for each of twenty-
four weeks. This would allow you to try out your skills throughout the week before moving
on to the next topic. However you choose to move through the workbook, make sure
to try something today, as a gift to yourself!
Although the parts and chapters were designed to build upon each other, you can also do
the exercises in any order you like. You can move though the workbook from start to finish
starting with A Call to Adventure and the Three Good Things exercise in Chapter 1. Or you
can skip around and go directly to the things you most want to use every day. Maybe right
now you want to learn how to be more resilient (see Chapter 5) or you want to watch Maya
Angelou talk about how Love Liberates (a personal favorite of mine) in Chapter 14.
You can see and hear Bruce go through the lesson for each chapter in the Author
Videos. These videos present the same lesson you can read about in each chapter of the
workbook. The links to his videos are at the end of each chapter, and there is also a
complete list in Appendix C at the end of the workbook. Although these Author Videos are
optional, they were included in case you’d rather watch the video or want to do both to
reinforce the lessons.
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If you choose to watch the Author Videos, you will notice that Bruce refers to each
“day” of the challenge rather than each “chapter” and each “week” of the challenge rather
than each “part”. This is because these videos were created for the initial four week
challenge which this workbook grew out of. With 24 chapters in all, this meant finishing
one chapter for the first six days of each week, followed by a day off before beginning the
next week. If you do watch the Author Videos, just remember to substitute “chapter”
and “part” when Bruce talks about the “day” and “week” of the challenge.
Each chapter in this workbook contains:

 The lesson for the chapter. The lesson is also covered in the Author Video listed
at the end of each chapter.
 Description of the chapter tasks. There is a section at the end of each chapter
that describes each of the tasks and why they were included.
 Instructions for the chapter tasks.
◦ A link to Bruce’s video of the lesson for the chapter
◦ A link to a supplementary video illustrating the topic for the chapter
◦ Positive psychology exercises and reflection questions to enable you to
apply the chapter lesson and foster reflection and discussion with others
This workbook is available as both a free PDF and a printed copy for the minimal no
profit to us cost of approximately $6.00 at Amazon.com. Here is a link where you should be
find it (you can also do a search on Amazon using the book title and author name):
https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-W-Smith/e/B078T27V58?ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vu00_i0
Here is our Center for Applied Positive Psychology link where you should be able to find
the free PDF and download as many copies as you like:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eVPov4kbw-2WcYHU51Nbv8wi-aCC3y72?usp=sharing
This is also the link where we will make announcements about future online
challenges, a discussion forum we are planning for those using this workbook, and a
list of updated links if you are having trouble with any of links to the videos. If you
have a printed copy, you may find it useful to get this list of links that you can click on.
If you have comments or questions or want to be on the list for future online challenges,
please email us at the Center for Applied Positive Psychology at cappnmusa@gamil.com
Enjoy your journey through this positive psychology experience!
Honored to be a part of this project,
Tanya Kallan
Positive Psychology Enthusiast Cultivating My Best Life
Member of the Center for Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP)
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Part 1 - Basic Training

for Your Best Life
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What is Part 1 about?

Purpose: The purpose of this part is to enable
you to better understand the kind of things that
may make you most happy and how you can use
this workbook to bring them more into your life.
Topics: There are chapters about what you
most want in life, what will enable you to achieve
it, and how to foster the mindfulness, resilience,
wisdom, and creativity that will enable you do it.
Activities: The most important activities focus
on helping you see, appreciate, and create more of
the good things in your life that can bring you joy
and happiness despite whatever stress and
challenges you may be dealing with.
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A Call to Adventure
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
― Mary Oliver
Welcome to the positive psychology challenge! Through this workbook we are going to
give you the opportunity to change your life through positive psychology. Positive
psychology is the science of happiness and what makes life worth living.
This is no ordinary challenge focusing on only one area of your life, like flatter abs or the
latest diet. Rather, this challenge can affect all areas of your life and what matters most. The
big question that confronts us all was expressed in the words of poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me,
what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” The purpose of this
challenge is to help you answer this question for yourself in the best way possible!
This challenge is sponsored by the Center for Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) in
New Mexico and is based on what was voted the best class at the University of New Mexico
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In addition, during the past few years, research has shown
that the students who took this class consistently had increased in happiness, well-being,
resilience, and success and that is our goal for you.
Until recently, psychology had primarily focused on what goes wrong with people and
reducing negative things like anxiety and depression. When Martin Seligman became the
president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, he took the initiative to begin
funding research on what makes us happy, what can go right with us, and how to foster
them. This became what is now called positive psychology.
Our ancestors were able to survive because they paid enough attention to physical threats
like spiders, snakes, and predators. However, we have inherited their tendency to focus on
negative things that no longer threaten us and we continue to have such strong physical
reactions to the daily hassles of life that it harms our mental and physical health. This bias
toward the negative has kept us from seeing and fully appreciating some of the best things
in our lives - things that bring us joy, meaning, and fulfillment and that can actually help us
better cope with stress!
The purpose of positive psychology has been to enable us to rediscover and build on
these things so that we can jump start our lives in moving toward the happiness and success
that we seek. But don’t let the word “positive” fool you, the positive in positive psychology
does not mean that we have to deny that negative things happen in our lives. The positive in
positive psychology means that it aims to help us move forward in a positive direction in
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the midst of, in spite, and sometimes even because of the stress that we experience and the
bad things that happen to us.
In fact, we can think of how positive psychology can help us in the context of a “hero's
journey” that involves facing our fears and learning from even some of the worst that
happens as we seek to move towards a better life. The author and teacher Joseph Campbell
studied stories around the world, across many centuries, and found the same stages in many
of them, that these stages often reflect what happens in our lives, and that they can be used
to inspire and guide us on our own journey.
Basically, there is a call to adventure into an unfamiliar place or unknown circumstances.
The early part of the journey involves undergoing a series of smaller trials and tests while
meeting people who can guide and mentor us, and learning the skills we need in order to
face bigger challenges. Eventually, there comes a big test that involves confronting
something particularly challenging or scary. Campbell says that “The cave you fear to enter,
holds the treasure you seek.” If the hero succeeds in learning, growing, and facing the
greatest challenge, then they emerge transformed with rewards they could not have
imagined and gifts that become just the kind of things that the rest of the world needs.
How is this kind of hero’s journey related to our challenge? This challenge is a call to the
adventure toward whatever you might want most and be best for you. Where does positive
psychology come in? In our favorite stories there is often a mentor or guide like Obi-Wan
and Yoda in Star Wars or Dumbledore in Harry Potter and there is often a power that the
hero needs to master, like the Force in Star Wars or magic in Harry Potter.
Positive psychology can help us in the same way by serving as a guide to show us the way
and as a “force” that enables us to put what we learn into practice until we can fully embody
it in the life we want. Thus, this positive psychology challenge is a call to the adventure of
becoming our best and making the most of our lives - despite whatever stress, traumas, or
bad things that we may experience along the way.
For each of the six chapters in the four parts of this challenge, you will have a lesson for
the chapter, videos to illustrate it, activities and exercises to make it come alive, and the
opportunity to reflect on and write about what you are learning. The lessons are grounded
in positive psychology and related areas of science including neuroscience and other
branches of psychology and the social sciences. Most important, research has shown that
the activities and exercises you will be doing are effective in enabling people to increase
their happiness and well-being and change their lives for the better.
In addition, each of the four parts builds upon the previous part, with the first being
basic training and identifying what may make you most happy, the second enabling you to
identify and better use your strengths, the third empowering you to build better
relationships and making a difference in the world around you, and the fourth in helping
you plan for a better future beyond this challenge.
So, there are four parts, each with six chapters for a total of 24 chapters. While you can
go at your own pace, we suggest that you get into a rhythm in doing a certain number of
chapters every week. If you have time and really want to focus on a big change in a small
amount of time, you could do one part or six chapters every week. If you did three chapters
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a week, the whole challenge would take eight weeks and if you did two chapters a week it
would take 12 weeks.
If you were really busy and didn’t have as much time, you could do one chapter a week
which would take 24 weeks or close to six months. The other thing to keep in mind is that
if you find a chapter that is particularly important to you, it may be good to spend more
time on it and come back to it whenever you want or need to. Finally, the different parts
and chapters have the kinds of lessons and activities that we can continue to learn and
benefit from so you may want to go through them again at different times in your life.
Workbook Tasks for the Chapter
Now that you have answered this call to adventure and are ready to begin, let me tell you
about the workbook tasks listed below for this chapter:
First, as you will find at the end of each chapter, there is a link for a video where you can
see and hear me going through the lesson for the chapter. Remember that the videos were
originally created for a four week online challenge where people went through one chapter
six days a week (with one day off) during four consecutive weeks. Thus, as you go at your
own pace, just think about “chapters” and “parts” when you hear me talking about “days”
and “weeks” in these videos.
Second, in order to help you better understand how you can benefit and increase your
motivation for completing this workbook, there is a reflection question about why you are
doing this challenge and what you hope to gain from it.
Third, at the end of this chapter there is a link for a special video about Joseph
Campbell’s idea of a “hero's journey” for you to watch. This was included to help you
understand how your life and this challenge might be like the kind of “hero’s journey” that
can motivate and inspire what you do in this challenge. You will be asked to write about the
ways that your life has been like this kind of a hero’s journey, how this challenge can be like
it, and what kind of an adventure this challenge might be calling you to..
Fourth, there is an activity that involves writing down three good things that happen in
the next day. You will be doing a variation of this activity several times this during this first
part of the challenge. We included this because it has been shown to be so effective in
helping us reduce our bias towards the negative and see more of what is good around us. It
also takes practice so it can be a good exercise to continue every day until it becomes a
routine and natural part of your life.
Fifth, there is a well-being survey for you to complete and score. In the next chapter, we
will help you understand the elements of well-being that the questions ask about on the
survey. We include this survey at the end of the first and last chapter of this workbook so
you can compare your scores and see what may have changed. The well-being survey is also
included in Appendix E so you can make copies to use it at others times in order to see and
think about how you are doing and compare your scores at different times.
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1. Author Video of the Lesson

Here is the link for the video of me going over the lesson for this chapter.
https://youtu.be/rwYpX8ua8vs
2. Reflection Question
Why are you doing this challenge and what do you hope to gain from it?
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3. Special Video – “What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler”

Watch the video and think how you can relate to the idea of a “hero’s journey.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhk4N9A0oCA&t=21s
In what way or ways has your life been like the kind of hero’s journey described in the
chapter and in the video?
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In what ways or ways can this challenge be like this this kind of hero’s journey for you?
What kind of adventure might it be calling you to?
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4. Three Good Things Activity
Write down three good things that happen in the next day. They can be good in whatever
way you define them and could be something you see, do, hear, or even just think about.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
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5. Well-Being Survey
Instructions: First, circle the number that best indicates your response for each question.
Second, add up your scores for the five elements of well-being (positive emotions,
engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) and for negative emotion. Third,
you can see what the scores mean in the table below and use this challenge as a way to
improve them.
1. In general, to what extent do you lead a purposeful and meaningful life?
Not at all 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Completely
2. How much of the time do you feel you are making progress towards accomplishing
your goals?
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
3. How often do you become absorbed in what you are doing?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
4. In general, how often do you feel joyful?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
5. To what extent do you receive help and support from others when you need it?
6. In general, how often do you feel anxious?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
7. How often do you achieve the important goals you have set for yourself?
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
8. In general, to what extent do you feel that what you do in your life is valuable and
worthwhile?
9. In general, how often do you feel positive?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
10. In general, to what extent do you feel excited and interested in things?
11. In general, how often do you feel angry?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
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12. To what extent have you been feeling loved?

13. How often are you able to handle your responsibilities?
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
14. To what extent do you generally feel you have a sense of direction in your life?
15. How satisfied are you with your personal relationships?

16. In general, how often do you feel sad?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
17. How often do you lose track of time while doing something you enjoy?
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
18. In general, to what extent do you feel contented?

Add up the total for each of the three questions for following:
_____Positive Emotions (4, 9, 18)
_____Engagement (3, 10, 17)
_____Relationships (5, 12, 15)
_____Meaning (1, 8, 14)
_____Accomplishment (2, 7, 13)
_____Negative Emotions (6, 11, 16)
Level of Range for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Range for Negative

Well-Being Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment Emotions
Very high 27-30 0-3

High 24-26 4-9
Average 20-23 10-15
Low 15-19 16-19
Very low 0-14 20-30
If you like, you can take the survey online and read more about it at the following address:
https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questionnaires/perma
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What Do You Want Most?

Happiness is not a goal…
It’s a by-product of a life well-lived.
― Eleanor Roosevelt
What do you want most in your life? Often people answer this question by listing the
things that they think may make them happy. But what is happiness and what are the things
that will make you happy?
Since positive psychology is the science of happiness and what makes life worth living, it
may help us answer these questions for ourselves. First, happiness is not just about avoiding
stress and the bad things that can happen to us because “stress happens” and will continue
to happen. Positive psychology has shown that happiness is also about discovering and
filling our lives with the good things that bring us pleasure, joy, meaning, and fulfillment. In
the past, psychology focused primarily on avoiding negative things and emotions like anger,
fear, and sadness; whereas positive psychology has focused much more on positive things
and discovered the value of positive emotions like joy, love, interest, and contentment.
Second, the things that we think may make us happy may not always be the things that
actually make us happy. Positive psychology has shown us that things like money, physical
attractiveness, age, income, and IQ may not be as important as we thought and that things
like time, optimism, self-esteem, having good friends, and meaningful ways to spend our
time may be a lot more important than we thought. In fact, in her book The Myths of
Happiness, Sonja Lyubormirsky presents the evidence that it is possible to be happy when we
may not have thought it possible – like when are single, older, without a lot of money, have
serious health problems, or have experienced trauma or abuse.
Third, positive psychology has helped us discover a critical difference between the kind
of good feeling or pleasure we may experience when we taste our favorite chocolate, on the
one hand, and the lasting gratification we may get from being true to ourselves or trying to
make the world a better place, on the other. The bottom line is that the things that we think
may make us happy may not always do so and that the kind of happiness and well-being
that we come to value the most may often involve more than just fleeting pleasure or the
avoidance of negative emotions.
One of the most important theories in positive psychology is the one developed by its
founder, Martin Seligman, about the things that may bring us lasting happiness and well-
being. Seligman used the acronym PERMA where each of the five letters signify the five
different things that we may seek for their own sake and that may us happy about our lives.
24
These five elements – along with negative emotions – were asked about in the survey that
you were asked to complete in the first chapter of this workbook.
As I go through each of the five elements of PERMA, I want you to think about which
are most important to you and which you would most like to work on in this challenge. The
P stands for positive emotions – like joy, interest, love, and contentment – and includes the
pleasure that we often associate with happiness. Positive psychology has made many life-
changing discoveries about the value of positive emotions. Barbara Fredrickson has shown
that one of the reasons we have positive emotions is to enable us to broaden and build the
strengths and resources we need in facing the challenges of life and better coping with
stress. Jonathan Haidt has identified a positive emotion that he called “elevation,” which is
the warm, uplifting feeling we experience when we see unexpected acts of human goodness,
kindness, or compassion and which can motivate us to act in the same way.
The E in PERMA stands for engagement – which refers to being absorbed, interested,
and involved in an activity or the world itself. This kind of engagement involves the
experience of flow – which was identified by one of the founders of the positive psychology
movement – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – who has one of the hardest names to pronounce or
spell that I know! We experience flow when we are so absorbed in something that we love
to do, that we lose track of time and can do it for hours. Michael Jordan and LeBron James
get into flow when they play basketball. For me it might be when I am teaching and for you
it might be something else – like a sport, hobby, or some aspect of your work. But if we can
find and continue to do things that put us into flow, then we will increase the element of
engagement and find ourselves feeling fulfilled and wanting to do it again and again.
The R in PERMA stands for relationships and refers to feeling loved, supported, and
valued by others. Even if relationships aren’t always pleasurable, we often seek them for
their own sake. There are many popular songs about the pain we sometimes experience in
our close relationships. There are many days when being a parent may not be pleasurable
but we do it because we value our children and our relationships with them. Our brains and
our intelligence did not evolve to do calculus, read Shakespeare, or pass exams; but to
understand and get along with other people – because they can be that important to us! One
of the founders of positive psychology, Chris Peterson, summed it up in these three simple
words, “Other people matter!”
The fourth letter in PERMA is M, which stands for meaning. This is having a sense of
purpose and direction about where our life is going and the feeling that it is meaningful and
worthwhile. It often includes being connected with something greater than ourselves, which
could be spirituality or religion but could also be a movement, cause, nature, or the
universe. Martin Seligman chose meaning for this theory because of the work of people like
Viktor Frankl, who wrote a book called Man’s Search for Meaning. In this book, Frankl talks
about his experience in concentration camps in Nazi Germany during World War II. He
believed that having a sense of meaning was the thing that enabled him to survive when so
many around him were dying. There are many situations where a sense of meaning may be
more important than pleasure, such as when we give ourselves to a cause that involves
giving up some things we enjoy, or working hard in a challenging profession where the
greatest rewards are in helping other people or improving the community.
25
The fifth and final letter in the acronym PERMA is A which stands for accomplishment
– which involves achieving something and a sense of mastery. Sometimes we may do
something for no other reason than that it brings us a sense of accomplishment and
achievement. This could be getting the black belt that we may never need to use, finally
getting that degree after years of being away from school, mastering that video game that no
one else that we know understands, or climbing that mountain just because it is there.
These are the five kinds of things that we may seek for their own sake, for the
satisfaction, gratification, reward, and – whether or not we understand why – just because
we really want to! Remember the acronym PERMA - which stands for positive emotions,
engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Which of these are most
important to you? Which would you most like to work on and increase in their challenge?
The tasks for chapter will help you answer these questions and begin a practice that can
help you see and appreciate more of the good things that happen all around you.
First, as after every chapter, there is a link to a video where you can see and hear me
going over the lesson for this chapter.
Second, there a link for a special video by Alan Watts where he ask the question “What
do you desire?” This is another way of asking Mary Oliver’s question about what you plan
to do with your “one wild and precious life.” After watching the video, think about what it
is that you most desire and want for your life.
Third, there is a variation of the three good things activity that you did in the last chapter
and will help you continue to see more of the positive and good things in your life. But this
time we want you to review your list at the end of the day and reflect on the three things
you identified before you go to bed. This will help you remember and recall them so they
might be more present to you during different times of the day in the future.
Fourth, there are 10 questions that will help you determine what may bring you the
greatest happiness and may be most important for you to focus on in this challenge. These
questions are based on a variety of valuable exercises used by counselors, personal coaches,
trainers, and teachers to enable people to determine what may be the best goals for them to
work towards.
Fifth, there are questions for you to reflect on and answer to help you decide which of
the five elements of PERMA that we talked about in this chapter are most important to you
and which ones you may most want to work on.
1. Author’s Video of the Lesson

https://youtu.be/ccM094t4Cas
26
2. Special Video - “Alan Watts - What Do You desire?”

Watch the following video and think about what you desire or want most in your life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCUFs2qJ1bs

Write down three good things that happen in the next day. Before the end of the day,
read the list to remind yourself of them and reflect on them before you go to bed.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
4. Happiness Questions
Answer these questions and think about what you want most out of this challenge:
1. What has brought you the most happiness in the past?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
27
2. What do you think would bring you the most happiness in the future?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. Who are the most important people in your life?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What do you like to do in your spare time?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
28
5. What would you most like to do for work?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. What has brought the most meaning to your life?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. What are your most important goals for the future?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
29
8. What would you do if you had all the time and money in the world?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
9. How would you like to be remembered after you are gone?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. What do you most want out of life?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
30
5. Reflection Questions
What element or elements of PERMA are most important to you? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What element(s) of PERMA would you most like to work on in this challenge? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
31
How Can You Make It Happen?

Follow your bliss and the universe will open
doors for you where there were only walls.
― Joseph Campbell
How can you create the kind of life that you want most? What can enable you to achieve
your goals and reach the destination you see for yourself on your own “hero’s journey”?
In the first chapter, we talked about the call to adventure. In the second chapter, we
asked you to think about what you want most in your life and most out of this challenge. In
this chapter, we will introduce three building blocks of positive change that can go a long
way in making that happen and that you’ll have the chance to bring to life in this challenge.
The first is something that you can see in Walt Disney, J.K. Rowling, Steve Jobs, in
Einstein’s thought experiments as well as in the greatest inventions and most beautiful
visions of the future. It is in the power that we possess to think about things in a new way –
and it is called positive reappraisal. It is the ability to change our minds to see things in a
way that is more beneficial and useful for us, for others, and for the world.
Near the beginning of the first chapter, I talked about how humans evolved to have a
negativity bias because our ancestors paid more attention to negative things like lions, tigers,
and bears. In addition, it turns out that we also have the capacity to reappraise things in a
positive way that can reduce this bias and enable us to more fully see, appreciate, and enjoy
the good things around us.
By simply noting three good things like you did after the first two chapters and will
continue to do after this chapter and the next, you are learning to exercise your power to see
the world in a new and different way. Rather than calling it positive reappraisal – we might
simply call it the power to change our minds and our perspective to see more of what is
good, beautiful, and those things that can bring us joy and happiness now and in the future.
So, the first building block of positive change is positive reappraisal – our ability to
change our minds for the better. The second has more to do with what we do than what we
think. It too has been very effective in helping people overcome depression. But until
recently it was almost entirely neglected in enabling people to become their best and helping
them reach the heights of joy, meaning, and success. It is all too easy to overlook or forget.
It too has been a driving force for some of the most successful people and greatest
achievements in art, music, science, literature, and sports. It has to do with finding those
little things that you - and maybe only you - love to do. These include things that you could
do for hours at a time, things that your friends and family members may not understand at
32
all, and may even think you are a little strange for doing. They are so easy to miss when we
are busy doing what we think we should rather than what we really want to do.
The technical name for this is “behavioral activation” because it has been a way to get
people who are depressed to begin to be active and involved with life again. In fact, research
has showed that once many of them have started to do this, they often begin to experience
pleasure again, and often don’t want to quit! Behavioral activation is everywhere in positive
psychology – and is big part of many of the exercises that you will be doing. Joseph
Campbell called it “following your bliss” – which means to do those things that you love to
do and that you feel like you were made and meant to do.
The idea of behavioral activation is to find things that you enjoy doing so much that you
don’t want to stop and that they help you find what you love to do, what you might get paid
well to do, and what often brings you to other people who also love to do it. This often
involves the element of Engagement in PERMA and the experience of flow, which is like
being in the zone that athletes get into when they are at the top of their game.
So, the first thing is positive reappraisal, the ability to change our minds for the better,
and the second is behavioral activation, the power of doing things that you really love to do.
But, as they said in Star Wars, “there is another” and this other can be most clearly seen in
the most challenging part of that “hero’s journey” that we can see in Star Wars, in other
popular and inspiring movies and stories, and in the story of our lives.
We can see this power most clearly in the “exposure” therapies that enable us to
overcome anxiety and face the things that we fear the most. This can also be one of the
greatest sources of courage and best ways to increase it. Some of us may think that courage
means not feeling fear, but the reason why exposure therapies work is it provides a
supportive context to gradually expose someone to what they are afraid of.
When we are really afraid of something, our strongest inclination is usually just avoid it.
If we are terrified of public speaking, then we may not take a job or class where we have to
speak much in front of other people. If we are afraid of being rejected, we may avoid dating
or trying to make new friends. If we have a fear of failure, we may avoid trying something
new or something that we are not sure that we can do well. But when we avoid doing what
we are afraid of, our fear grows and we don’t have the chance to learn that we can reduce it.
Whereas when we face it and move forward anyway, we generally discover that the fear
begins to melt away and we gain increased confidence in our ability to overcome our fears.
This is how this third principle of exposing ourselves to what we fear helps us. In facing the
things you might be afraid of in this challenge, exposing yourself to what you are afraid is
often what it takes to defeat the inner “dragons” we may fear the most. For most of us at
most times, courage may not be the absence of fear, but finding a way to go forward in spite
of it – just as this challenge is designed to enable you to move forward in spite of stress.
There are two things that may help us in exposing ourselves to what we are afraid of and
rather than just continuing to avoid it. The first is that we can often gradually expose
ourselves to what we are afraid of so we can gain more courage and confidence before
facing our greatest fears. The second is that although there is no one else who can face our
33
fears for us, there are friends, mentors, and fellow travelers who can encourage and support
us as we do it and may even face some of the same fears with us.
But we can also get help from the first two building blocks and where all three can begin
to work together for us. When you can change your mind using positive reappraisal, you can
better see the gifts and rewards that you may get for facing your fears and begin to see
yourself as having the courage that it takes. When you can get a taste of those things that
you love to do in using behavioral activation – even when you are sick or tired or scared -
the motivation to act will often become greater than the fear that holds you back.
As you go through this challenge, you may not always be aware you are doing it, but you
will often have the opportunity to practice these three building blocks. You will be using
positive reappraisal to see things in a more beneficial light, behavioral activation to identify
and practice doing more of the things you love do, and exposing yourself to what you fear
to build the confidence and courage you need. The more you are aware of and practice
these keys to positive change, the more you will be like that Jedi master in Star Wars who
learns to use the power of the Force. Although many people are not aware of them,
research has consistently shown that can be a potent force in our lives - that can not only
can free us from anxiety and depression but can enable us to make the most of our lives.
With these building blocks in mind, here are the tasks that will help you understand,
appreciate, and benefit from them.
Second, there is special TED talk video with Shawn Achor talking about the value of
positive psychology and how happiness can lead to success. You will see him give an
example where positive reappraisal helped his sister cope with an injury and you will see
him talk about the benefits of many of the activities you will be doing in this challenge.
Third, you will once again be asked to write down three good things that happen to you
in the next day. This time we want you to reflect on them before you go to bed and also try
to think of where you may see good things during the coming week. This will help you
practice positive reappraisal and enable you to change how you see the world around you.
Fourth, you will have a list of pleasant activities and you will be asked to identify the top
10 that you would like to try. This task is a form of behavioral activation that can help you
discover new things that you may enjoy doing and want to make more a part of your life.
Finally, there are reflection questions about what new pleasant event you would most like
to try and also about what fears you might need to face on your way to getting the most out
of life. This may help you see how you can use things you love to do as a motivation and
reward for exposing yourself to things you are afraid of and that get in the way of your
living the kind of life you most want.
34
1. Author Video of the Lesson

https://youtu.be/8ZDDcz5D5Vo
2. Special Video - “Shawn Achor - The Happiness Advantage”

Watch the video and think about how focusing on your own happiness may lead to
success in different areas of your life. Also, look for when he talks about his sister the
“unicorn” and how you could use your imagination in a similar way to cope with a stressful
or challenging time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXy__kBVq1M

First, write down three good things that happen during the next day. Second, read the list
and reflect on them before you go to bed. Finally, take a few minutes to think about when
and where you might see these and other kinds of good things during the next week or two.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
4. Pleasant Events Activity
Read the list of pleasant events (see Appendix F), list the top 10 that you would like to
try below, and rank them from 1 to 10 with #1 being the one you most want to try.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
35
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Which of the pleasant activities that you listed would you like to try in the next week?
When and where could you try it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What happened when you tried the pleasant event that you planned to do? How do you
think it affected you?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
36
What are you afraid of that may get in the way of getting what you want out of life?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What kind of rewards might make exposing yourself to what you are afraid of worth it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
How can you use positive reappraisal or behavioral activation help you move forward in
spite of your fears?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
37
Mindfulness and Acceptance

Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience.
― Jon Kabat-Zinn
So far you have learned about this positive psychology challenge as a call to an adventure.
It is the adventure of moving closer towards the kind of life that you want most. This could
involve increasing the elements of PERMA - positive emotions, engagement, relationships,
meaning, and accomplishment - or some other goals or things you think may bring you
greater happiness and well-being.
In the last chapter, you learned about three building blocks that you will use throughout
this challenge and that will make your adventure and positive changes in your life possible.
Positive reappraisal is the ability to change your mind to better see the good things in your
life, behavioral activation involves finding and doing the things you really love to do, and
exposing yourself to what you are afraid will enable you to build the courage you will need
to face and overcome your greatest fears and obstacles.
In this chapter, I want to say something about the best place to start with this and any
journey, and that is right here and right now – with practicing mindfulness and acceptance.
The psychologist Carl Rogers once said, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself
just as I am, then I can change.” Mindfulness is about accepting where you are right here
and now, so that the changes that you want and need in your life can begin to happen.
Mindfulness was first introduced to many people in the Western world 30-40 years ago
by a then young scientist named Jon Kabat-Zinn who had studied it in Buddhism. He
developed a program to use mindfulness to help people with anxiety, stress, and chronic
pain that doctors had not been very successful in treating. Kabat-Zinn has defined
mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose in the present moment,
and non-judgmentally.”
So, mindfulness is the awareness of what is happening right now, within us and around
us. It involves focusing our attention on this in the present moment and continuing to do
this moment by moment. And it involves the open and accepting observation of “what is”
right now without any attempt to judge whether it is right or wrong or good or bad. When
we can see and fully take in what is happening right now, we can understand where we are
and can begin to move forward and make the changes that may be important for us.
You can see mindfulness in many famous teachers – going back to Buddha himself, in
the modern Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, and in Eckhart Tolle who wrote a book
called The Power of Now. Mindfulness has become an important part of positive psychology
38
in that it enables us to fully notice, take in, and appreciate the good things in our lives that
we may otherwise miss.
Mindfulness can also play a critical role in enabling us to function at a high level. George
Mumford is a former professional basketball player who has taught people like Phil Jackson,
Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant to use mindfulness to reach the top of their game.
Mumford wrote a book called The Mindful Athlete that is not only good for athletes but for
all of us who want to be at our best. Ryan Niemiec is psychologist who has used
mindfulness to enable people to better focus on and use their strengths. He wrote a book
called Mindfulness and Character Strengths that presents a program for how we can practice
mindfulness to better see, appreciate, and use the best in ourselves.
There are many ways that you can begin to benefit from mindfulness. You can read a
book by someone like Jon Kabat-Zinn, George Mumford, or Ryan Niemiec. You can take
the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, also known as MBSR, which was developed by
Jon Kabat-Zinn and is now being regularly taught in most major cities.
To help you get started in benefitting from mindfulness, I want to do two things in the
rest of this chapter. First, I want to make you aware of two common barriers to practicing
mindfulness. Second, I want to tell you about four ways that you can begin to practice
mindfulness. In addition, we will give you the opportunity to practice a form of mindfulness
for one of the activities listed at the end of this chapter.
The first common barrier to mindfulness is that we spend so much time focusing on the
past or the future that, at first, it can be nearly impossible for some of us to focus on the
present. It is important for us to try to learn from our past and plan for the future, but if we
are never fully aware of and attentive to the present, we may not really be able to show up
for and really experience and live our lives.
The second common barrier is that we are constantly judging and evaluating whether
what we are thinking and feeling is useful or good, and whether what is happening around
us bodes ill or well for us. Mindfulness not only involves letting go of the past and the
future, but also letting go of our judgments about them which frees us to be more open to
fully experiencing our lives in the present.
If you try to practice mindfulness, be gentle, patient, and kind with yourself when
judgments and thoughts of the past and future come up. It is easy to react to one judgment
with more judgment, whereas it is may be more beneficial just to note that you are making a
judgment and simply return your focus to your experience in the present.
With these common potential barriers in mind, here are four ways that you can begin to
practice mindfulness.
The first way is called mindful breathing where you focus on your breath as it goes in and
out of your body. You can focus on your breath wherever you are most aware of it - your
nose, your chest, or your abdomen as it rises and falls. This also may be a simple and
effective way for many people to relax wherever they are.
The second way is called a body scan where you focus on the sensations in different
parts of your body. It usually begins with your feet and gradually moves up through your
39
whole body to your head and face. This is particularly helpful for those who have recurrent
pain in different parts of their bodies. What they often find in doing the body scan is that
the pain is often not as bad as they feared and that it comes and goes much more than
always being there as a constant pain.
The third way to practice mindfulness is called choiceless awareness where you practice
allowing your attention to go wherever it goes and wherever it is drawn. This is harder than
it may sound because we are so easily distracted by thoughts of the past, the future,
judgments about how we are doing, and thinking about where we should focus our
attention.
The fourth way to practice mindfulness simply involves being more mindful during the
regular activities of daily living such as walking, washing dishes, cleaning the house,
gardening, or any simple repetitive activity. While many people may need quiet times free of
distraction to begin to learn to focus mindfully on the present, this practicing of mindful
awareness during daily activities can be a way to bring mindfulness more into everyday life.
So the lesson for this chapter is about the power of mindfulness in making acceptance
possible and the value of being fully present to our lives. Mindfulness involves paying full
attention to and having a full awareness of our lives in the present. It enables us to accept
“what is” so that we can fully appreciate, enjoy, and savor it, and also begin to make
whatever changes may be important for enabling us to move forward on our journeys.
The tasks for this chapter are all designed to enable you to more fully understand and
experience mindfulness and the mindful acceptance of the present.
Second, there is a link for a special video about the kind of thing that mindfulness will
enable us to see and more fully appreciate, and how joy can break into our lives when we
least expect it!
Third, there is a guided mindful breathing exercise that will help you to begin to practice
and experience mindfulness. There is a link below for a website where you can find this and
other guided mindfulness meditations and practices such as the body scan.
Fourth, there is again the opportunity to write down three good things that happen
during the coming day. But this time you are also asked to write a sentence about how you
can be more mindful of the kind of things that you note and more fully appreciate at least
one of the three things in the future.
Fifth, there are reflection questions about how mindfulness might help you in your life
and about the ways that you have found to be most helpful in relaxing.
40
1. Author Video for the Lesson

https://youtu.be/S_dAoCZe-W4
2. Special Video - “Flashmob – Ode an die Freude (Ode to Joy)”

Watch the video and think about where and how you could be more open to joy in your
life and think about the potential sources of joy and happiness that you would like to pay
more attention to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo
3. Mindful Breathing Activity

Go to following link:
https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations
Do the Breathing Exercise (5 minutes) and any of the other meditations you’d like to try.

Write down three good things that happen in the next day. Before you go to bed, read
the list to reflect on each of them and write a sentence about how you could use
mindfulness to appreciate one of them more in the future.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
How I can use mindfulness to appreciate one of these things more in the future:
_____________________________________________________________________________
41
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
How might mindfulness help you in your life?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
42
What are the ways that you have found most helpful in relaxing? Which one do you think
would be most helpful for the future? How could you make it more a part of your routine?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
How could you make one of them more a part of your normal routine?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
43
Resilience and Stress-Related Growth

Do not judge me by my success,
judge me by how many times
I fell down and got back up again.
― Nelson Mandela
We have now begun a journey towards the kind of life we most want for ourselves. In
Chapter 2, we learned about the kinds of things we might want to aim for to increase our
happiness and well-being. In Chapter 3, we learned about positive reappraisal as our ability
to see our lives in a new and better light, behavioral activation as a way to find and focus
more on things that we love to do, and gradually exposing ourselves to the things we fear as
a way to build courage. In the last chapter, we learned about how mindfulness can enable us
to be present and accept where we are so that we can really move begin to forward.
The purpose of this chapter is to focus on what we can do when the inevitable things
happen that cause use stress and get in our way. There are probably few realities that
become more apparent to us as we go through life than the fact that “stress happens.”
Yet there are also few things that we admire more in others than the capacity to be
resilient in bouncing back and even learning and growing from stress. This is where positive
psychology has shown through the dark clouds like the sun after a long rainy season. If you
only paid attention to clinical or abnormal psychology, with their focus on what goes wrong
with us, you might think that resilience was a rare thing.
But in recent times, psychologists like George Bonanno have shown that even when
people experience traumatic events, only about one out of four develop posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) and as many as one half experience something you may not have even
heard of – “posttraumatic growth,” which has also simply been called “stress-related
growth.” Posttraumatic or stress-related growth refers to the learning, growth, and benefits
that can result from the traumatic and stressful experiences we have in our lives.
Another great thing that psychology has discovered in the past 20-30 years is that there is
so much that we can do to increase our resilience and also our ability to learn, grow, and
benefit from the stress in our lives. Let’s start with the things we can do to increase our
resilience.
The first harkens back to the lesson in the previous chapter about mindfulness and the
other five things we will mention will also be a focus in later chapters of this workbook.
When stress happens, our sympathetic nervous system has evolved to quickly put us into
fight or flight where we may hastily act out of anger or fear. Mindfulness can interrupt this
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initial knee-jerk reaction to a stressful event. It can give us time to pause and more fully take
in and assess the situation and think about how best to respond rather than to just simply
react.
The second thing that can help us increase resilience is positive reappraisal - thinking
about the situation in new and more positive and potentially beneficial light. Once we pause
and begin to think about how we want to respond to a stressful situation, we can challenge
our fears about the worst happening, envision ourselves as being resilient in response to the
stressful situation, and begin to discover new more constructive ways to cope.
The third thing we can do to increase resilience is simply to not give up when a goal is
really important to us. We will talk more about this in our lesson on perseverance and grit in
the next second part of this challenge. But at the end of this chapter, there is a link for
dramatic and memorable example of this in a young woman who embodies resilience when
the worst happens while she is running in a big race during an indoor track meet.
The fourth way to increase resilience is by increasing what is called self-efficacy, which is
the belief that we can do what it takes to bounce back and be resilient. We will have a whole
lesson in the second part of this challenge about self-efficacy. During this lesson, we will
give you the five well-established ways that you can increase your self-efficacy for resilience
or for achieving any other goal you might want to achieve.
The fifth way to increase resilience involves a having a sense of meaning or purpose in
life. This is illustrated in life of Viktor Frankl, whose strong sense of meaning and purpose
enabled him to survive four concentration camps during World War II in Nazi Germany.
When you have something to live for, someone who depends on you, or a reason to keep
living; you are much more likely to prevail during stressful times.
Finally, just as there is strength in numbers, so there is also resilience in numbers. Social
support is the psychological term for having people to count on when we are under stress
and really need them. Social support in the form of friends, family, a team, a work group, a
church, or the larger community can play a critical role in resilience. We might reverse the
familiar saying to make it – “Divided we fall and united we stand!”
So, these are some of the primary ways that we can foster resilience:
1. Mindfulness, which involves pausing to assess the situation and think about how to
best respond.
2. Positive reappraisal, which involves seeing ourselves as resilient and finding ways to
cope that enable us to bounce back.
3. Perseverance, which means simply not giving up when something is really important
to us.
4. Self-efficacy, which is the belief that we have what it takes to be resilient.
5. Meaning and purpose - which involve having something that is worth living or a
reason for being resilient.
6. Social support which means having people we can count on in times of stress and
reaching out and allowing them to help us when we need it.
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What about posttraumatic or stress-related growth – which is not just bouncing back but
learning, growing, and benefitting from stress? What can enable us to make this happen or
at least more likely when we are under stress? First, it may help just to be aware of the
different kinds of benefits that people report coming from stressful events so we can begin
to look for them and believe that they may be possible for us. These benefits have included:
1. Finding new opportunities and possibilities
2. Becoming a stronger person
3. Having improved personal relationships
4. Making new friends
5. Developing a greater appreciation of life
6. Developing a greater sense of meaning and purpose
7. Spiritual growth.
In addition to being aware of the different kinds of growth or benefits that are possible,
there are other things we can do to foster them. The first is something we have already
talked about in relation to resilience: positive reappraisal. You remember that positive
reappraisal involves changing your mind to see things in a new way that may be more
beneficial to us now or in the future. So even when the worst happens, positive reappraisal
involves daring to think about a stressful situation in a new way and being open to how you
might learn, grow, or benefit from it.
The second way to foster stress-related growth is to think about our stress in the context
of the kind of hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell wrote about and you learned about in
Chapter 1. The stages of the hero’s journey not only include facing our greatest fear, but
also gaining a reward or benefit as we emerge on the other side of fighting our scariest
dragons. Many people have drawn inspiration from stories of people like Jesus or Buddha
because they were reborn or grew to higher level of existence after death or a dark night.
The third way to increase stress-related growth is to talk or write about our experience
with stress or trauma while keeping positive reappraisal and the potential rewards of a
hero’s journey in mind. This can involve sharing the experience with a trusted friend,
counselor, or mentor who can help us learn, grow, and find benefits. This can also be done
by writing about the experience in the context of a story that inspires us or where we just
begin to brainstorm about the ways we may be able to learn or grow from the experience.
So, the lesson for this chapter is a basic and critical one for all of us. It is the good news
about the possibility of resilience and stress-related growth and how to foster them. These
are two of our greatest weapons in the face of the inevitable stress that will get in our way
and also two of the greatest gifts for enabling us to move from only surviving to thriving
and making the most of our lives.
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Resilience enables us to get back to our previous level of happiness and well-being and
maintain it in the midst of stress.
Stress-related growth enables us to go above and beyond making it possible to gain
something from the experience and, as we see in the final stage of the hero’s journey, offer
it back to the world so that others can also benefit.
Yes, “stress happens,” and will undoubtedly continue to happen in our lives. The good
news is that we are learning so much about the capacity we all have to bounce back and
make it the very occasion for us to become our best and make the most of our lives.
I began the first chapter quoting Mary Oliver’s question asking us “what we plan to do
with our one wild and precious life?” The “wild” part may have something to do with the
stress that will continue to challenge us, the “precious” part may be what we have the
opportunity to bring to life the wild things come out.
Stay tuned! There is much more about this to come!
With these in mind, here are some things you can do to foster resilience and stress-
related growth and enable you to see and create more good things that happen around you
every day:
Second, there is a video of an extraordinary example of resilience in the life of a young
woman. When I have shown this video in a large class, there are often audible gasps and
tears in the eyes of the students as they see what she did when the worst happened. Pay
attention to your reaction and see if you can think of times in your life when you may have
responded in a similar way.
The third and fourth tasks involve writing about a time that you were resilient in the past
and about a time you might need to be resilient in the future. This may seem like a simple
exercise that only involves answering questions about your own experience. However,
research has shown that taking the time to freely and thoughtfully write about this often
helps people better cope with stress and also improve their happiness and well-being.
The more you reflect on when you have been resilient in the past, the more you increase
your confidence to be resilient in the future and remember to do the things that may help
you be more resilient. The more you reflect on when you may have to be resilient in the
future, the more you will be confident and ready when the time comes.
Fifth, the last task again involves writing down three good things that happen in the next
day. But this time, you are also asked to write a sentence about how you can make at least
one of the three good things happen more in the future. This will not only help you
discover what you can do to make more good things happen, it will also make you less likely
to miss them and be more aware of and ready to appreciate them.
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1. Author Video for this Lesson

https://youtu.be/2dndl9JI51E
2. Special Video - “Heather Dorniden’s Inspiring 600 meter race"

Watch the video and think of what it might look like for you to respond in the same way
to some of the challenges that you may face in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70UF82nysIU
3. Resilience in the Past

What is a time that you were resilient and what enabled you to bounce back? Be as
thoughtful and free as you can in expressing your thoughts and feelings about the
experience and what helped you.
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4. Resilience in the Future

Write about a time that you may have to be resilient in the future and what might help
you be resilient? Be as thoughtful and free as you can in expressing your thoughts and
feelings about what you think you may experience and what you think may help you be
resilient.
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Write down three good things that happen in the next day and then write a sentence
about how you can make at least one of them happen more in the future.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
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2. _________________________________________________________________________
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3. _________________________________________________________________________
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How I can make at least one of these good things happen more in the future?
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Wisdom and Creativity

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times,
if one only remembers to turn on the light.
― Albus Dumbledore
Congratulations, we are coming to the end of the first part of this positive psychology
challenge! We hope you will take time to rest, rejuvenate, and reward yourself for what you
have accomplished so far. In the second part of this challenge, we will focus on helping you
identify, build, and use your strengths and what is best in you. In the third part, we will
focus on enabling you to improve your relationships and your ability to be involved with
and impact the larger community and world around you. Finally, in the fourth part, we will
focus on enabling you to create a master plan for the kind of life that you might want most
and might make you most happy in the future.
There is one more basic lesson in this chapter that will help you plot your course and
find your way during the rest of this challenge. We want to talk about how you can foster
two things that have been thought to be important for centuries, but that most people think
there is little they can do to foster in themselves. The first is wisdom and the second is
creativity.
What is wisdom and why might it be so important for our lives and this challenge?
Simply put, wisdom is not just intelligence or what we can learn in school. It is the practical
knowledge that comes from life experience and enables us to achieve the happiness, well-
being, and success we seek in everyday life. It enables us to live in a world of uncertainty,
where there are so many different kinds of people, and where so much is relative, changing,
and depends on the situation and context.
One common example of wisdom is in what is called the Serenity Prayer – that asks for
the courage to change what we can, the serenity to accept what we can’t change, and the
wisdom to know the difference.
Another example of wisdom that the psychologist Barry Schwartz has provided has to do
with how we make decisions. There are some people that he calls “maximizers” who always
try to consider every alternative before making a decision. There are others he calls
“satisficers” who only look until they find an alternative or option that is good enough. It
turns out that there are some situations where it may be better to be a maximizer and other
situations, in a world of so many options, where we may be happier if we just go with what
is good enough. Again, the wisdom may be in knowing the difference!
How might wisdom help you in this challenge? For one thing, it may help you decide
what is most important to work on, what element of PERMA you might want to increase,
and what goals you might best have for the future. For one of your activities for this
chapter, we are going to give you a task that will help increase your wisdom about your life
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by giving your more perspective on what you may want to work on and try to improve. But
for now, let me tell about what we have learned about how we can foster wisdom in our
lives.
First, we can learn from the wise people that we may know by asking them our toughest
questions - or even asking them to become a mentor for us.
Second, we can learn from wise people in history by watching documentaries and reading
about them, especially those we admire and who have faced challenges that may be similar
to our own.
Third, we can become more aware of our own wisdom by having a dialogue with a real
or fictional wise person. In doing this, we may realize that – like Dorothy in the Wizard of
Oz – some of what we seek may already lie within us.
Fourth, many people find it useful to ‘google’ lists of quotes from wise people, identify
the ones that they resonate with the most, reflect on how and why these quotes speak to
them, and then use them as a guide in making tough decisions.
Fifth, we can make it a point to get to know people who have different perspectives and
experiences from our own. Einstein said that “Problems cannot be solved with the same
mindset that created them” and we may need to look for or put ourselves into a different
mindset to solve a challenging problem.
Sixth, we can become a mentor, guide, or teacher for someone else. You may be
surprised by what you already know and don’t know, and with what you might learn in the
process of trying to teach someone else.
But even more than with wisdom, many people think that creativity is just not in the
cards for them. Like them, you may think that you are just not a creative person. It turns
out that this may more often be an excuse than the truth. Creativity has been defined simply
as a new way to think about, see, or do something – that serves some adaptive or
constructive function or purpose.
The problem is that most of us think of creativity only in terms of the rare things that
people like Leonardo Da Vinci or Albert Einstein have done that changed the world. In
contrast, creativity researchers have found that we all have a remarkable aptitude for
creativity where it counts – in the uniqueness of our own everyday lives and in the specific
challenges that we face.
I remember talking to an older student who was down on herself because she didn’t
think she was creative enough to be an artist. As she talked, I realized that creativity and art
were readily apparent in the picture she was painting with her whole life. It was obvious in
the way that she balanced her conflicting demands, worked at night, took a full load of
classes, found parking in time to get to class, did a great job raising her children, and later in
the way that she wove all of her experiences together in using them to help her reach her
goal of getting a graduate degree and becoming a licensed professional counselor.
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The reality is that human beings have evolved to become inherently creative, especially
when we are living out own lives and not trying to live those of someone else. But even
more important, research has shown there are many things we can all do to foster creativity.
First, we can simply give ourselves time to brainstorm by making lists – like were you
asked to do for the pleasant events activity earlier in this first part of our challenge, or will
be asked to do in finding new ways to use your strengths in the next part.
Second, we can get together with a friend or group of friends who can help us get started
in brainstorming and coming up with new ideas if we have trouble starting on our own.
Third, we can practice mindfulness by paying attention to our senses, whatever is
happening right now, and take notice of the new things we may not have seen before.
Fourth, as with the behavioral activation we talked about and the pleasant events list you
reviewed, you can try all kinds of different things and continue to do the things you enjoy
the most. The positive emotions that doing pleasant activities cause have consistently been
shown to be a source of creativity. When we are feeling good and happy, we are more likely
to feel the freedom to think about new things than when we are feeling down and only
focusing on one negative thing that has happened or we are afraid will happen.
Fifth, we can find new ways to experience flow and do them as much as we can. Flow is
fertile ground for creativity because the more we do something, the better we get at it, and
the more likely we will be to discover new and better ways to do it.
Sixth, we can redecorate a room or a part of a room where we live or work in a way that
that says something unique about us. When we are free to make something our own, we are
naturally more likely to think of new ideas and approaches that reflect our own uniqueness.
Yes, the reality is that there is no one else just like you - your experience and perspective
are unique. You can paint a picture with your life that has a beauty all its own and that no
one else can match. During this challenge, we hope that you will do some of these things to
foster your inherent capacity for wisdom and creativity and that you will use them to get a
clearer picture of where you want to go in your life and how you can get there.
Here are the tasks that will foster your wisdom in understanding how balanced your life
is and your creativity in benefiting from stress and in noticing the good things in your life.
Second, there is a video where a woman displays her creativity in finding benefits in
something no one would want. We wanted to give you an example of the kinds of benefits
you might be able to find after some of the worst things you could think of happen to you.
Third, there are reflection questions asking you to write about a time that something
good came out of something bad and how something good might come out of something
stressful you are currently dealing with. This is a way of fostering wisdom and creativity
where it matters most - when we are facing a challenging or stressful situation. In addition,
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as with the activity in Chapter 5 where you wrote about a time you were resilient, research
has shown that writing about when you have benefited from stress helps you better cope
with stress, improve your happiness and well-being, and experience stress-related growth..
Fourth, there is an activity called the “wheel of life” to help increase your wisdom in
grasping the big picture of your life. This task involves rating how satisfied you are in
different areas of your life and then thinking about and identifying the areas that you would
most like to work on. There is a link to a website that can make this a very quick and easy
way to get an overview of how satisfied you are with all the important aspects of your life.
Finally, although we hope you will continue to note the good things that happen to you
during the day in the future, for the last time we are asking you to do a variation of these
simple but potentially powerful task. We began with this activity in this first part of the
challenge because so many people have found it helpful in reducing their bias toward the
negative and in taking on a whole new perspective on their lives.
Thus, this time the task involves both noting three good things and thinking about how
you might continue to benefit from an exercise like this by making it a part of your regular
routine. For example, you may want to continue to do it every day this for the rest of the
challenge, do it weekly or a few days a week, or identify a different number of good thing
every day. In addition, you could focus on different kinds of good things like those you see
in your friends and family members, good things that happen in your school or work life, or
those that are beautiful, funny, or meaningful in some way.
Beyond that, we hope that you will take time to appreciate and celebrate what you have
done in the first part of this challenge!
1. Author Video for the Lesson

https://youtu.be/BYyAVCBnEqE
2. Special Video - “The best gift I ever survived | Stacey Kramer”

Watch the video and think about how you may have benefited or may benefit when
something bad has happened to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgTnmWZX39w
Write about a time something good came out of something stressful, negative or bad.
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Write about how something good might come out of something stressful, negative, or
bad that you are currently dealing with. It might help to review the bullet list of the different
kinds of benefits people have reported that was given in the lesson in Chapter 5.
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4. Wheel of Life Activity

Complete the wheel of life exercise which you can find below. Answer as many of the
questions as you like and think about and identify an area where you would like to increase
your satisfaction.
https://wheeloflife.noomii.com/
How did this activity affect what you want to work on in this challenge?
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Write down three good things that happen during the next day and think of how you
might continue to use an exercise like this to continue to see and create more good things in
your life.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
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2. _________________________________________________________________________
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3. _________________________________________________________________________
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How can you continue to use an exercise like this to see and create more good things in
your life?
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Part 2 – Bringing Out

Your Best
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you to better see, appreciate, and use what is
best in yourself to increase your happiness, well-
being success, and make the most of your life.
Topics: There are chapters about discovering
your best, the value of being true to yourself,
and those on how to increase the perseverance,
courage, self-efficacy or belief in yourself, and
self-control you will need to be successful.
Activities: The most important activities
focus on identifying your strengths, using them
in new ways, and better understanding how to
use them to achieve the goals that will enable
you to create and fully realize the kind of life
that you want most for yourself.
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Discovering Your Best

Do the best you can until you know better.
Then when you know better, do better.
― Maya Angelou
Welcome to the second part of the positive psychology challenge! The first part was
basic training for making the most of your life and living your life to the fullest. You had an
introduction to positive psychology, learned about happiness, and the theory of PERMA
about the five elements of well-being. You also learned about three things that you will help
you increase them: (1) positive reappraisal which is the ability change your mind for the
better, (2) behavioral activation which involves finding and doing what you love to do, and
(3) exposure to what you fear as a way of increasing your courage for overcoming obstacles.
The three good things activity that you focused in most of the chapters in the first part was
a way of opening your eyes to more of the goodness and beauty around you every day.
During this second part of the challenge, we will focus on enabling you to better see and
use what is best about yourself. During the next third part, we will concentrate on
improving your relationships with others and the world around you before focusing on
helping you create a plan for a better future in the fourth and final part.
As I said in early in the first part of this chapter, before the dawn of the positive
psychology movement, the focus in psychology was primarily on what can go wrong with
us. Psychology and psychiatry developed what is called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
or DSM. This was developed to classify all of the mental and behavioral problems that may
affect us, including things like anxiety, depression, ADHD, substance abuse, bipolar
disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and PTSD.
To balance what can go wrong with what can go right, Martin Seligman and Chris
Peterson led the development of what has been jokingly called the “UN-DSM,” a manual
that classifies the attitudes, behaviors, and strengths that enable us to be happy, successful,
and create a life worth living. They recruited a large, diverse, and well-respected group of
psychologists and social scientists from around the world. This group met frequently during
the early years of positive psychology and came up with a new classification of human
virtues and strengths. Their goal was to identify the things that across time and culture
represent us at our best and contribute to both individual and community happiness and
well-being.
The result is what is called the Values in Actions or VIA classification of virtues and
strengths. It is presented in that “UN-DSM” or what is more formally titled the Character
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Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. They also developed a survey that we ask
you to take that will that enable you to identify your top strengths. Most important, during
the past 20 years, they and other positive psychologists have identified and developed a
growing number of ways to build and use each of the strengths. Unlike the fictional powers
in Star Wars or Harry Potter, these strengths represent the real powers that are within our
grasp and that can help us create the kind of lives we seek.
Thus, we are focusing on many of these strengths in different chapters in this challenge
and in this part will help you identify and learn how to better use yours top strengths on
your journey. To begin, I want to introduce the 24 strengths as they are classified under six
overarching virtues. As I go through these, see if you can identify some that may be top
strengths for you:
The first virtue is Wisdom, which enables us to find our way in life, and it includes the
strengths of Wisdom itself; Curiosity; Love of Learning; Open-mindedness; and Creativity.
The second virtue is Courage, which enables us to overcome obstacles to moving
forward in our lives, and it includes the strengths of Bravery; Authenticity, Honesty, and
Integrity; Perseverance; and Vitality or Zest.
The third virtue is Humanity, which enables us to establish and maintain good
relationships with other people and it includes the strengths of Love; Kindness; and Social
or Emotional Intelligence.
The fourth virtue is Justice, which enables us to create a healthy and just society and
includes Fairness; Citizenship or Teamwork; and Leadership.
The fifth virtue is Temperance, which helps us keep balance in our lives, and it includes
Self Control; Humility; Forgiveness; and Prudence – which has to do with careful planning.
The sixth and final virtue is Transcendence, which enable us to connect with things
larger than ourselves, and it includes Optimism and Hope; Appreciation of Beauty and
Excellence; Gratitude; Humor and Playfulness; and Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality.
Now that you know what these virtues and strengths are, I need to make a critical point
about them. Because of our negativity bias and tendency to focus so much on our disorders;
many people primarily focus on correcting their weaknesses - the strengths that that are
lower - rather than how to better use their top strengths.
The difference between working on your weaknesses and finding new ways to use your
strengths has been compared to a sailboat that represents each of us. Working on our
weaknesses is like fixing the holes in the boat. Sometimes it is necessary but usually not a lot
of fun and if it is all we do we may never really get anywhere. In contrast, focusing on better
using our top strengths - like you will do in this part for the challenge - is like lifting the
sails! When we do that, we really begin to get somewhere and it will feel like having the
wind at our backs.
This is like finding things you love to do, “following your bliss” in Joseph Campbell’s
terms, or experiencing flow - which often involves the expression of our top strengths. The
other thing is that once you experience that wind at your back in using your strengths, it is
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often not as hard to work on the holes in your boat - and using your top strengths can help
with that. In this challenge, you will get good ideas for building the strengths that you
struggle with, but the most important thing is that you begin to realize that you already have
sails and that you begin to lift them and see what happens!
You can see the power of this in the life of the singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder, who
was blind as a young child, although he had an exquisite sense of hearing. The turning point
in his young life came when a mouse got loose in his elementary school classroom one day.
The teacher had noticed little Stevie’s gift for hearing and asked him to use it to find the
mouse.
The whole class got quiet and Stevie began to hear what others couldn’t. He followed the
sound to the wastebasket where the mouse was hiding. The class cheered and thereafter
Stevie began to see himself more in terms of his strengths rather than his weaknesses. This
led him to embrace his gift for hearing and become one of the most creative and successful
musicians of the past 40-50 years. During that day in class, he felt the wind at his back, and
I hope you will begin to feel that same wind during this part of this challenge – which brings
us to the tasks for this chapter.
These tasks are designed to help you better identify your top strengths, reflect on when
you have used them, and spot strengths in others.
Second, there is a task that involves going to the website where you can take the Values
in Action (VIA) Survey that will enable you to identify your top strengths. After you
complete the survey, you will be given a ranking of the 24 VIA strengths from your highest
to lowest. This will be an important first step in seeing, embracing, and using what is best in
yourself and for the activities that will involve using your top strengths during the rest of
this part of the challenge. Although you may see options for paying for a larger report on
the survey website, all you need for completing the tasks in this workbook is the ranking of
your 24 strengths which doesn’t cost anything.
Third, there is an activity where you will be asked to list your top five strengths from the
VIA survey and write about a time you were at your best using at least one of your top
strengths. Just as it can be very helpful to think and write about times you have been
resilient or benefited from stress, so to it can be very useful to remember and reflect on the
times you have used your top strengths. This can improve your confidence and motivation
to use them and make it more likely you will benefit from using them in the future.
Fourth, there is a task for beginning to practice what has been called “strength spotting,”
which will improve your ability to see and empower the best in others. Below, there is a list
of the 24 VIA strengths with a brief description of each and a link to a special video of a
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scene from the movie Good Will Hunting. The task for you will be to circle the strengths that
you see in either the Robin Williams or the Matt Damon character.
Fifth, there also is a copy of the list of 24 VIA strengths in Appendix G. The final task is
for you to use it to identify the strengths in one of your friends or family members. If you
can, share your list with them and try to let them know when, where, and how you have
seen the strengths that you identified in them. Then you can ask them to identify your
strengths and you can talk about how to better support each other in using your strengths.
This is one of the best ways to increase your ability to see the best in other people.
1. Author’s Video for this Chapter

https://youtu.be/PCxzb3G_eiE
2. Take the VIA Survey Activity

This task involves going to the following link where you can take the VIA Survey which
will give you a ranking from the highest to the lowest on each of the 24 strengths. There are
options for paying for longer reports but all you need to do is to get your ranking of the 24
strengths, which is free.
https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register
3. Using Your Strengths While at Your Best

What are your top five strengths according to the VIA survey that you took?
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
What is a time you were at your best using at least one of your strengths?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Strength Spotting in a Movie

Watch the “park bench scene” video clip from the movie “Good Will Hunting” and use
the Strength Spotting sheet below to check off the strengths that you see in the counselor
character played by Robin Williams and his patient played by Matt Damon.
“Good Will Hunting – Park scene subtitled”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GY-iWnriGg
Below is a list and brief description of the 24 VIA strengths in their six categories. Which of
these do you see in the counselor character (played by Robin Williams) and the patient
character (played by Matt Damon)? When you see a strength use the initial C for the
counselor and P for patient. If you find that they both display the same strength, then mark
both initials.
WISDOM
_____ Creativity: ingenuity; sees & does things in new/unique ways; original and adaptive
ideas
_____ Curiosity: novelty-seeker; takes an interest; open to different experiences; asks
questions
_____ Open-mindedness & Judgment: critical thinker; analytical; logical; thinks things
through
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_____ Love of learning: masters new skills & topics; passionate about knowledge &
learning
_____ Wisdom: wise; provides wise counsel; sees the big pictures; integrates others’ views.
COURAGE
_____ Bravery: valorous; does not shrink from fear; speaks up for what’s right
_____ Perseverance: persistent; industrious; overcomes obstacles; finishes what is started
_____ Authenticity, Integrity, & Honesty: integrity; truthful; authentic
_____ Zest: enthusiastic; energetic; vital; feels alive and activated
HUMANITY
_____ Love: gives and accepts love; genuine; values close relations with others
_____ Kindness: generous; nurturing; caring; compassionate; altruistic; nice
_____ Social and/or Emotional Intelligence: aware of the motives and feelings of
oneself & others, know what makes other people tick
JUSTICE
_____ Citizenship and/or Teamwork: a team player; community-focused, socially
responsible; loyal
_____ Fairness: acts upon principles of justice; does not allow feelings to bias decisions
about others
_____ Leadership: organizes group activities; encourages and leads groups to get things
done
TEMPERANCE
_____ Forgiveness: merciful; accepts others’ shortcomings; gives people a second chance
_____ Humility: modest; lets accomplishments speak for themselves; focuses on others
_____ Prudence: careful; wisely cautious; thinks before speaking; does not take undue risks
_____ Self-control: self-controlled; disciplined; manages impulses & emotions
TRANSCENDENCE
_____ Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence: awe-filled; quickly moved to wonder;
marvels at beauty & greatness
_____ Gratitude: thanks for the good; expresses thanks; feels blesses
_____ Optimism & Hope: optimistic; future-minded; has a positive outlook
_____ Humor: playful; enjoys joking and bringing smiles to others; lighthearted
_____ Meaning, Purpose, & Spirituality: meaning and purpose-driven, religious and/or
spiritual
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5. Strength Spotting in a Relationship

The final task involves using a copy of the Strength Spotting sheet in Appendix G that is
like the once you used in the previous task involving spotting strengths in a movie. There
are two parts to this task.
The first part is to use Strength Spotting Sheet to identify the strengths of one of your
friends or family members. If you can, share your list with them and let them know when,
where, and how you have seen the strengths that you identified in them.
What strengths did you highlight in the other person and what was it like to talk with
them about their strengths?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
The second part of this task is to give a copy of the Strength Spotting sheet to the person
whose strengths you tried to identify and ask them to use it to identify your strengths. Once
you have done this for each other, then you can begin to talk about how you can work
together in help each other in better your top strengths.
What strengths did they highlight and what was it like to talk with them about your
strengths? How can you encourage and support each other in better using your strengths?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Authenticity
Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.
― Bernard Baruch
I hope that taking the VIA survey helped you begin to discover more about your
strengths. It is one of the best tools we have for discovering more of what is best in
ourselves. I would also encourage you to let more of your friends and family members
know about it and ask them to take it so that you can share your results together. As with
one of the tasks at the end of the last chapter, you can also copy the Strength Spotting sheet
in Appendix G and use it to spot and point out the strengths that you see in each other.
This brings us to our lesson for this chapter, which is about authenticity and the
importance of being true to ourselves. It includes being true to our strengths and our
weaknesses, our talents, gifts, and interests, and all that makes up who we are – even when
those around us may not be able to recognize, acknowledge, or accept it.
There are few words that express what positive psychology has to offer regarding
authenticity better than the simple words of Cyndi Lauper in the song True Colors:
“You with the sad eyes
Don't be discouraged
Oh, I realize
It’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small.
But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So, don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow.”
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You know that psychologists and people in the academic world can get lost in using big
words to get published and tenure - and to get other people to accept and admire them. But
look at that first verse.
There are a lot of those sad eyes in psychologists who only pay attention to abnormal or
clinical psychology. In addition, there are many others who get overwhelmed with our bias
towards the negative, what is worst in the world, in other people, or in themselves. The first
verse says, “You can lose sight of it all, and the darkness inside you can make you feel so
small.”
That survey you took; those words used to describe those strengths; we work hard to
develop vaccinations from out of control viruses, but we miss the psychological vaccine that
might keep us from being overwhelmed by that inner darkness. The words for those
strengths, those good things about us, and the ability to see and name them; they may be
just the vaccine that the doctor ordered!
Cyndi Lauper is singing about what psychologists like Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow,
and Carol Ryff had already been focusing on and what has come to the center for positive
psychologists like Martin Seligman, Chris Peterson, and Barbara Fredrickson.
Take a look at the second verse. Positive psychology has given us the words and the
vision to see the full truth about ourselves – not just our weaknesses and disorders – but
now also the remarkable attitudes, behaviors, and strengths that enable us to be at our best.
“I see your true colors and that’s why I love you.”
That’s why I love you? If we can’t see ourselves in the light of love - then of course we
may get lost in anxiety, depression, and stress. Carl Rogers thought that if you grow up
surrounded by those who love and accept you for who you are - that you will probably
become someone who can do the same for others and will want to give back to the world.
Research has found that troubled children and adolescents who have just one person they
trust and who believes in them can make all the difference in enabling them to be resilient
and learn and grow from the stress that they experience.
Not only that, but isn’t it a natural human response to love someone when they put
themselves out there and really makes themselves vulnerable to us? In the special video for
this chapter, you will see the social work researcher Brené Brown talk about this. She has
done studies showing that taking the risk of being vulnerable with others may be a critical
part of building and sustaining the kind of relationships that we all need in order to be
happy and feel like we belong.
When we see someone reaching out in a vulnerable way to us, we often feel that they are
taking a risk to give us a gift and we might feel like saying the words in the song: “that’s why
I love you.” We might add the words, “I can see you, I can see myself in you, and I can see
us reaching our destination – in the joy and sense of fulfillment of being true to who we
are.” But the message of Brené Brown, the healing power of taking a risk in reaching out to
others, and much of positive psychology may be even better than the second verse.
This second verse says, “don’t be afraid to let them show.” People like Brené and those
in positive psychology would say, “Okay, so it is natural to be afraid, you are not alone, and
69
the fear that you are feeling doesn’t have to stop you.” They might also add, “I see you and
I got you!” “I see your true colors shining through!”
Next, in the song there are words that you will probably never find in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or in the report of a clinical psychologist, “You are
beautiful – like a rainbow!” The “rain of that darkness that makes us feel so small,” is
transformed by those colors shining through in being true to ourselves – and then suddenly
we don’t feel small!
But I’m not just saying this because Cyndi, Carl, and Brené said it. I’ve definitely seen
this hypothesis tested and supported after many years of trying to be true to the good, the
bad, and the ugly in myself. However, the best evidence I’ve seen is in what happens with
the students in a small advanced positive psychology lab class that I’ve taught more than a
dozen times. In this class, the students have a simple assignment that is great for them,
because they don’t have to hear me talk more, and great for me, because I don’t really have
to do anything except take it all in.
The assignment is to simply have each student give examples of when they have used
their top strengths, in front of the class of 20-25 students. The rest of the class each have
those Strength Spotting sheets and check what they see and then write whatever they can
about whatever goodness and beauty they see in the speaker. What happens? Well, it never
fails and makes me want to sing that song! With amazing consistency and infinite variety,
the students talk about how they used what is best in themselves to do often incredibly
difficult and inspiring things like overcoming abuse, bullying, and rejection. Moreover, they
end up shining brighter than the rainbow in that song.
And what has happened without fail is that by the end of the semester, there is a
community – maybe the kind that most people never get to experience – where people see
and bring out the best in each other in spite of the worst that has happened to them.
Together they move from surviving to thriving as they witness how to make it happen in
lives and stories of their fellow students and people just like them.
So, in coming to the close of this lesson, the good news from positive psychology about
authenticity is twofold. First, that being true to ourselves is critically important for our
survival and for thriving and flourishing – and that sometimes we need to take a risk in
putting ourselves out there.
Second, that our ability to be authentic goes hand-in-hand with just the kind of
community that we hope this challenge will make more possible for you to find, discover,
and create. In order to be true and love and accept ourselves for who we are, we need to
seek out and create the kind of community that welcomes it. There will be much more
about this in part three of this challenge, where you will learn about what we can do to
improve our relationships and community - which we know are a primary source of our
happiness and well-being!.
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But for now, those colors, those strengths - don’t be afraid to let them show! On this
journey you are not alone. Even if you are afraid, watch the Brené Brown video and begin
taking little risks with those you trust and then see what happens.
The tasks for this chapter involve finding new ways to use your top strengths, the value
of being vulnerable with other people, and understanding value of authenticity in your life.
Second, there is a task that involves going online to find a list of different ways you can
use the VIA strengths, reading the sections about the top five strengths that were identified
for you on the VIA survey, and then thinking about and writing down new ways that you
can use each of these strengths.
Third, the next activity builds on the last. It involves using two of your top five strengths
in a new way in the next week or two. This is the primary kind of task that you will build on
during this part of the challenge. Research has shown that it has consistently been an
effective way for us to increase our happiness and well-being.
Fourth, you need to watch the video that is a TED talk called “The Power of
Vulnerability” by Brené Brown. This has been one of the most watched TED talks of all
time and one that many former students have found to be very powerful in bringing about
positive changes in their lives. After you watch it, there are questions that ask you to think
about when you may have been made yourself vulnerability in the way she talks about.
Fifth, there are reflection questions asking you to write about a time when you were true
to yourself in the past and also when you might want to be more true to yourself in the
future. Writing about when you have been true to yourself is a way of building courage and
confidence for doing it more in the future. Writing about when you might want to be true
to yourself in the future can be a way of exposing yourself to what you are afraid, like we
talked about in Chapter 3, so that your anxiety and fear will become reduced while your
courage for being vulnerable grows.

https://youtu.be/iTvmXXRKJLY
2. Planning New Ways to Use Your Strengths

Read the sections of the “340 Ways to Use Character Strengths” by Tayyab Rashid about
your top five strengths and write down three new ways you can use each of those five
strengths.
You can find it here: http://tayyabrashid.com/pdf/via_strengths.pdf
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My Strength #1 is: _______________________________ New ways I can use it are:
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
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3. Using Your Strengths in New Ways

Use two of your top strengths in one of the new ways that you identified in the next
week or two. What strength did you use and how? How did you feel in using them? What
happened when you used them?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Special Video - “The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o
After you watch the video, reflect on and write about a time when you were vulnerable in
the way that Brené Brown talks about.
How were you vulnerable? What do you think enabled you to be vulnerable and what
happened when you were?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What was a time you were true to yourself in the past? What do think helped you to do it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
When would you like to be more true to yourself in the future? What do you think would
help you do it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Perseverance
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
― Lao Tzu
So far in the second part of this challenge, you have identified your strengths and learned
about the value of being true to yourself. In this chapter and the next, we are going to talk
about two other things that might be necessary for moving forward in being true to the best
of ourselves – especially in the face of stress and whatever obstacles we may face.
In this chapter, we will be focusing on one of the simple strengths that we are exercising
every time we decide not to give up. In the next chapter, we will focus on courage itself –
although it will not just be physical courage but other forms of courage we may need much
more often.
This first simple strength that we are going to talk about in this chapter is perseverance,
and we are also going to talk about two of its close cousins, who I think you will really enjoy
meeting!
But first, I want you to let you know about a few people you may have heard of who had
to persevere after they failed, fell down, or were defeated.
When he was a young man, Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because his boss
thought he lacked imagination and had no original ideas.
Before they hit it big, the Beatles were turned down by the Decca recording company by
an executive who said, “We don’t like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.”
Before she became rich and famous and beloved around the world, Oprah Winfrey was
told that she was fired from her job as a news anchor because she “wasn’t fit for television.”
Before becoming what many people think is the greatest basketball player of all time,
after he was cut from his high school basketball team, Michael Jordan went home, locked
himself in his room, and cried.
Before becoming famous for writing the Harry Potter books and making more than a
billion dollars, J.W. Rowling was a struggling single mother on welfare whose book was
rejected 12 times.
This next person is probably the closest to a legend that the United States has ever had.
But before he became what many think is the best president in U.S. history, Abraham
Lincoln’s fiancé died, he failed in business twice, had a nervous breakdown, and was
defeated in eight elections.
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The final person that I want to mention did not speak until he was four years old, did not
read until he was seven; causing his teachers to think he was mentally handicapped, slow,
and anti-social. Albert Einstein eventually won the Nobel Prize and changed the face of
modern physics!
These are prime examples of the power of perseverance or simply refusing to give up.
This power is often expressed in a simple saying that probably has a version in nearly all
languages and cultures around the world, “The longest journey begins with a simple step.”
As you think about what you want in your life, perseverance is a great equalizer that makes
it possible for even the smallest, weakest, and most flawed among us to have a chance.
Why is this simple strength so powerful and so important for our happiness and success?
Fortunately, there have been enough research psychologists who didn’t give up until they
got some answers!
First, perseverance makes it more likely to attain difficult goals. That is, perseverance is
generally rewarded with success - maybe not every time, but it usually is eventually, and that
is the point!
Second, perseverance enhances our enjoyment of success. If we make it the first time
without having to really try, then reaching that goal may not mean as much to us.
Third, perseverance can also have benefits that have nothing to do with our original
goals. Going out for the Tee-ball team until we make it as a child won’t translate into an
adult career in Tee-ball, but it may teach us an incredibly important lesson about
persevering in other ways that will help us succeed as an adult.
Fourth and last, perseverance can increase our sense of self-efficacy – which is the belief
that we can do what it takes to reach one of our goals.
So, this is perseverance and why it is so important. But I also mentioned two of its close
cousins and how much I thought you might also like to meet them! You will hear more
about the first of these cousins in the special video for this chapter. The word for it has
been in the title of a couple famous western movies as well as what we sometimes call
something that becomes stuck between our teeth. The word is “grit” and its meaning here is
“perseverance – plus!”
This kind of grit has been studied by Angela Duckworth who has shown it to often be
more important for success than things like IQ or physical strength. It turns out that grit
may also be something that is a lot easier for us to increase. I said that grit is perseverance
plus, and I literally meant it. The two parts of grit are, one, perseverance and, two, having a
long-term goal or purpose that you maintain and continue to be passionate about. The idea
is that when you put them together, they produce more beautiful music than just John
Lennon or Paul McCartney alone.
So, perseverance alone is very good, but if you can combine it with the kind of authentic
passion or purpose we have been talking about – watch out! Out of those things that you
love to do, try to find the ones that you love the most. Out of those ways that you can
experience flow, see if you can organize them around a long-term goal that is true to who
you are and what you want most. If you do these things and use your strengths to “follow
77
your bliss,” like Joseph Campbell talks about – well, that is where you get a Michael Jordan,
Oprah, J.K. Rowling, Honest Ab, or the best of who you can be!
The other encouraging but also challenging cousin of perseverance is called “growth
mindset” – which has been contrasted with what psychologist Carol Dweck calls “fixed
mindset.” While both of these mindsets are related to how successful we are, they really
come into play when we fail. When you fail a test, are rejected, lose a job, or don’t make the
team – the temptation is to adopt a fixed mindset that says the reason you didn’t reach your
goal was because of something inherent about you that you can’t change.
In contrast, that “growth mindset” cousin was raised on generous helpings of positive
appraisal and the possibility of stress-related growth. Growth mindset is the perspective that
rather than being a final statement on the inherent limitations of who you are and what you
can do, a failure or set-back is actually an opportunity to learn so that you can do better next
time and eventually be successful. Combine this with that long-term passion and purpose
thing that Angela Duckworth talks about, and you are really on your way!
So, however you ranked on perseverance in the VIA survey, you really have no excuse,
and you should invite the cousins over. Perseverance means simply taking another one of
those single steps, grit adds a purpose that we are passionate about and asks if this is
something we really want, and growth mindset says, “Okay, I am going to perform a Jedi
mind trick when the inevitable happens. When I fail, I am going to use it as the occasion to
learn what I need for getting it right next time!”
So, first be clear about what you really want. That is why we began by trying to help you
identify that in the first part of this challenge. Once you get a good idea of what would
genuinely make you happy and the strengths you can use to make it happen – that is where
perseverance comes in to enable you to bring it all home. The good news is that if you just
keep at it, you are much more likely to eventually get there!
Finally, growth mindset may bring us a more powerful message than the often quoted
words of Friedrich Nietzsche who said, “What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”
Growth mindset says that what doesn’t kill me, even if I really fail in the process, may not
only make me stronger but also wiser and probably a lot happier.
The tasks for this chapter will help you better understand the value of grit, use your
strengths to experience flow and increase your happiness, and about how to know when
and how to best exercise perseverance.
Second, there is a video about that cousin “grit” that we talked about. It is a TED talk by
Angela Duckworth who first began to study grit and show how important it can be. She was
78
a student of Martin Seligman, the primary founder of positive psychology. This video will
help you better understand why grit may be so important in helping you reach your goals.
Third, there is an activity that involves using one of your top strengths to put yourself in
the experience of flow. We may often be using our top strengths when we are in flow and
this activity may help you find new ways to experience flow. It may also help you see how
beneficial it can be for success and living our lives to the fullest. If you remember the
sailboat metaphor that was introduced in Chapter 7, the experience of flow is often like
having the wind at our backs when we lift the sails in using our top strengths.
Fourth, there a writing activity that asks you to list your three of your top strengths that
you think may most enable you to increase your happiness and well-being in the future. This
will increase your motivation to use your strengths and help you get a better idea of how
and when to best use them.
Finally, there are reflection questions about when it might be most important for you to
persevere, when it might be best not to persevere, and what might help you best know how
to decide between the two. Of course, this is a related to Serenity Prayer written by the
theologian Reinhold Niebuhr:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.”
Like all of the VIA strengths, just as we may sometimes not use them enough, there are
others times when we may use them too much. Perseverance is one of those strengths
where the wisdom to know the difference when to keep going and when to stop trying may
be especially important.
1. Author’s Video for this Lesson

https://youtu.be/v_UuF1g1jP8
2. Special Video - “Grit: the power of passion and perseverance |

Angela Lee Duckworth”
After you watch the video, reflect on when you have used grit and when it may be most
beneficial for you in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8
3. Use a Top Strength to Put Yourself in Flow

Use one of your top strengths in a way that may put you into the experience of flow that
was described in Chapter 2, when we covered the element of Engagement in Martin
79
Seligman’s PERMA theory of well-being. Try to do something that might put you into a
flow state in a new and different way than what you may have experienced in the past.
If you need help coming up with ideas, you can review the 340 Ways to Use Character
Strengths that we gave you the link for at the end of Chapter 8. You can also easily ‘google’
it by just entering the title. It might also be useful for you to review the list of Pleasant
Activities in Appendix F for ideas of different things that you might want to do. After you
have tried to use on of your top strengths to experience flow, answer the questions below.
What strength did you try to use and how did you use it to try to experience flow? What
happened when you did it? What did you learn from the experience?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Using Your Top Strengths to be Happy
List three of your top strengths that you think may do the most to increase your
happiness and well-being and write about how you can best use each strength to make this
happen.
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1. The first top strength for increasing my happiness and well-being is:
_________________________________________________________________________
How I can use this strength to increase and my happiness and well-being:
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
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2. The second top strength for increasing my happiness and well-being is:
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3. The third top strength for increasing my happiness and well-being is:
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What are the situations and circumstances in your life when you think it may be
important for you to persevere and not give up?
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What are the situations and circumstances in your life when you think it might be
important not to continue to persevere?
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What might help you best decide when to persevere and when to stop trying?
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Courage
The only thing to fear is fear itself.
― Franklin Delano Roosevelt
You are now halfway through the second part this challenge. The first part was basic
training. The second part is focused on discovering and using your strengths and what is
best in you to make the most of your life. During the first part, you learned about how to
foster a classic human virtue and strength that can show us the way and enable us to make
tough decisions: wisdom. In this chapter, you will learn about an equally classic human
virtue and strength that can give us the emotional “oomph” we need to move forward
despite obstacles and fear – courage!
We may not often see the relationship between wisdom and courage and how much
courage may depend on wisdom. But it is wisdom that can prevent courage from falling into
doing something that is rash, stupid, or just plain dumb. What is courage? Its root is in the
Latin and Greek words for “heart.”
Earl Shelp has defined courage as having three components:
1. There is a significant risk of harm or loss.
2. There is a judgment – and this is where wisdom comes in – that the potential benefits
of an action may outweigh the risks.
3. There is both the willingness and the ability to carry out the action.
There is one very important thing that is missing from this definition – and this one
thing may broaden the occasions and possibilities of courage for us all. Did you catch it?
This definition does not say that courage means that we are not afraid. In fact, when there is
significant risk of harm or loss, there may be something wrong with us if we don’t at least
feel a little fear.
Now here is where courage comes home to matter tremendously for each of us. When I
say the word bravery or courage, what do you think of? If you are like most people, you
may think of a soldier putting him or herself at risk in battle or a firefighter going in to save
someone in a burning building. These are examples of physical courage – which we may
indeed be challenged to show at some points in our lives.
But one of the breakthroughs in the positive psychological study of courage has been to
extend it to include the kinds of courage we are much more likely to need in our everyday
lives. There are at least two other kinds of courage that, in addition to physical courage, may
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be critical for making the most of our lives, on the one hand, and for building a community
that makes this possible for all of us, on the other.
The first kind has been called “personal courage” and the second has been called “moral
courage.” Personal courage is the kind of courage we are asking you to display the most in
this challenge. It is what will enable you to answer the call to adventure in entering a new
and unknown place in your life. Sometimes we will do almost anything to avoid the
unknown, including staying in an abusive relationship or toxic work environment,
continuing with an addiction, or not asking for help when we really need it.
Personal courage is the willingness and ability to take a calculated risk – even when we
are anxious or afraid – in doing something that may help us really move forward in our
lives. It is what you have already been doing in this challenge if you have gotten this far.
You have dared to try something new that may change you and how you see the world. You
have dared to pay attention to something other than just the holes in your sailboat. You
have begun to see and lift the sails. It takes personal courage to do that and see where it
takes you. So, whether or not you can relate to the physical courage of a soldier or those
firefighters during September 11, we can all relate to the personal courage it takes to leave
our comfort zone and take the risks necessary for creating a life that is worth living.
But in addition to physical and personal courage, there is another kind of courage that is
so easy to miss, especially in the world of psychology that focuses so much on the individual
and not the well-being of our larger community and world. It turns out that human beings
are inherently social animals and a necessary part of our happiness is intimately tied to that
of those around us.
This calls for moral courage, which is taking calculated risks for other people and the
larger community. It is the willingness and ability to speak up and do the right thing in the
face of negative consequences, such as the loss of income, relationships, jobs, social status,
and the approval of others. Examples of moral courage include Rosa Parks risking being
arrested and going to jail for not sitting in the back of the bus and Mahatma Gandhi
refusing to eat until the Hindus and Muslins in India stopped fighting.
While moral courage may result in some unwanted consequences us as individuals, it also
means gaining something that no one can take away from us – the satisfaction of knowing
that we did the right thing. I once asked my students to rate their willingness to try each of
the 340 Ways to Use Strengths that you were asked to review in Chapter 7. Several of the
top rated were examples of moral courage like standing up for those who can’t stand up for
themselves and resisting peer pressure in speaking out against an injustice.
Thus, while we may sometimes hear the call to display physical courage – we may more
frequently hear it for personal and moral courage.
There is one other thing that is important to say about courage. Robert Biswas-Diener
has written about what he calls “the courage quotient.” He defines courage in mathematical
terms by saying that whether we will act in a courageous way depends on our willingness to
act divided by the fear we are feeling about acting. He thinks that the two things we can do
to increase courage are (1) to decrease our fear and (2) to increase our willingness and
motivation for acting.
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We have already begun planting the seeds for doing both in the challenge. First, we can
decrease our fear by gradually exposing ourselves to what we are afraid of with the support
of others. We can do something like mindful breathing to relax and calm ourselves so we
can see and think more clearly.
Second, we can increase our willingness and motivation to act by focusing on the
satisfaction, gratification, and likely reward of our courageous action and by creatively using
positive reappraisal to help us a better path to it.
A simple example from my life was when I first fell in love as I was a teenager. I was
terrified to talk to girls. But I was so enamored with this particular girl that despite my
abject fear, I was actually able to call her and ask her for date. I finally had a motivation that
was stronger than my fear. But the reward may not just be in getting the girl or the boy, but
even more in the confidence that you can do the courageous thing when it is called for.
So, the lesson for this chapter has been about courage, which is essential for this
challenge and for a life worth living. As you begin to realize how much more you are
capable of using your strengths, you will see abundant opportunities for practicing courage.
Once you decide to do something that requires courage, you can use what you have learned
to reduce your fear and increase your motivation by focusing on the potential benefits of
acting courageously.
The tasks for this chapter will help you understand and see the value of courage in your
life and how you can use your top strengths to have a positive impact on other people in
your life.
Second, there is a link for a special video that shows an extraordinary example of
personal and moral courage in the life of a 6-year-old girl. This has been another video that
I could often see strong reactions in the students in class when they have watched it. It is a
wonderful example of how children can sometimes show the wisdom and the courage that
adults may sometimes lack.
Third, the next task involves writing about a time when you showed courage and what
may have enabled you to be courageous. Just be sure to look for times you may have shown
personal or moral courage as well as times you may have expressed physical courage. Also,
just as a good way to boost resilience or the use of your top strengths is to remember a
when were you successful in the past, so too thinking and writing about when you were
courageous in the past can be a great way of increasing your confidence and the likelihood
of being that way in the future.
Fourth, there are reflection questions about where and when you would most like to
display courage in the future and what might help you to act courageously when the time
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comes. Just imagining and rehearsing a situation in the future where you may need courage
can reduce the fear and anxiety you will feel at the time.
Finally, once again there is a task that involves using one of your top strengths in a new
way, but this time you are asked to do it with the goal of having a positive impact on
someone else. While it may be beneficial to use your top strengths in a new way even
without a specific goal in mind, it may be may be that much better for other people and for
you to use it to express love and kindness. You will learn much more about the benefits of
these two strengths when we focus on them in the third part of the challenge.

https://youtu.be/2gOSNDKB3CM
2. Special Video – “Adorable Girl Tells her Divorced Parents to be

Friends”
Watch the video and think about when it might be beneficial for you to try to show
similar courage in speaking out to someone who is in authority or has some kind of power
over you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCNUlEfD_dg
3. When You Showed Courage
What was a time when you were courageous and what enabled you to be that way?
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4. Reflection Questions:
When and where would you most like to display courage in the future? What might help
you act in a courageous way?
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5. Using a Top Strength in a New Way to Positively Impact Others

This activity involves thinking about how you can use your top strengths to benefit
others and then doing something to use one of these strengths in this way and see what
happens. The first step is to brainstorm about what you may be able to do and the second
step is to choose one thing to do and see what happens when you try it.
What are some ways that you can use your top strengths to benefit those who are most
important to you?
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How did you use one of your top strengths to benefit someone important to you? How
did you feel when you were doing it and how do you think it affected you both?
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Self-Efficacy
My father gave me the greatest gift
anyone could give another person,
he believed in me.
― Jim Valvano
In the last two chapters, we have talked about two basic human strengths that make it
possible for us to overcome the obstacles that may get in our way. The focus of this chapter
has a name that may not be very familiar to those outside of psychology. At the same time,
it is hard to imagine anything that is more relevant to everything we do or that has been
embraced more broadly around the world.
Self-efficacy is its name and this name was coined by the psychologist Albert Bandura
who first studied it. Self-efficacy is easy to confuse with self-esteem and what we will be
talking about in the next chapter – self-control. Whereas self-esteem has to do with how
favorably we view ourselves, self-efficacy has a more particular focus and is defined as “your
belief in your ability to do what it takes to reach a specific goal.”
There are two things to make clear about self-efficacy. First, self-efficacy doesn’t have to
do with your actual ability to do something, only your belief about whether you think you
can do it. Second, self-efficacy is usually associated with a specific goal or activity, such as
being able to pass a math class, stick to a schedule, or run a marathon; rather than about
being able to do anything and everything.
Let me try to make the first point clear with an example. Let’s say that the basketball
player LeBron James had a twin brother who was his equal in terms of height, speed, agility,
intelligence, and the ability to dunk. Let’s say that they were on two basketball teams that
were equal in every way and that they met in the NBA championship.
The only difference between LeBron #1 and LeBron #2 is that Lebron #1 has a
stronger belief in his ability to play better than his brother LeBron #2. Even though the
twin LeBron’s are equal in ability, experience, and everything else, the research on self-
efficacy strongly suggests that LeBron #1 will play better and that his team will be more
likely to win the championship.
This is the power of self-efficacy - the power of believing that you can do what it takes to
reach a goal. Self-efficacy is one of the most powerful and useful concepts in psychology for
two reasons. First, it has been shown to be important in all areas including mental health,
physical health, sports, music, entertainment, art, education, medicine, and business.
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Second, whereas it may be harder to change your ability or the amount of experience you
doing something, it may be easier to boost your self-efficacy.
Think about that. We said that perseverance and grit can be great equalizers. Self-efficacy
may often be an even greater equalizer. Do you know the story of when Susan Boyle went
on Britain’s Got Talent to sing before Simon Cowell and the other hyper-critical judges? She
sang, “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables. The beauty of her singing blew everyone
away – including Simon Cowell! It took an incredible amount of self-efficacy – belief in her
ability to sing – to do what she did and she was richly rewarded for succeeding.
Before I tell you what you can do to increase your self-efficacy for reaching your goals, I
want to first tell you what research has discovered about why it is so important.
First, self-efficacy makes us more likely to approach a difficult task or goal as a challenge
to be mastered rather than a threat to be avoided. In other words, we may be more likely to
have a growth mindset that we can learn even if we fail the first time rather than a fixed
mindset in thinking that we are just not cut out for it.
Second, self-efficacy makes us set more challenging goals and stay committed to them. It
is hard to imagine a more challenging goal than making the most of our lives and living
them to the fullest like we are focusing on here.
Third, self-efficacy can enable us to take a broader view of our lives and increase our
creativity by giving us more options and ways to succeed. We will be more likely to see the
big picture that includes the rewards rather than just what we are afraid of.
Fourth, in Chapter 5, there was a special video that showed an extraordinary example of
resilience when a woman running a race fell and got up to win the race. Another reason that
self-efficacy makes us more successful is that it enables us to do the kind of thing that she
dared to do after she fell.
Fifth, and this is the reason that we may least expect, self-efficacy makes us more
successful because it reduces the stress and emotional distress we experience while engaged
in a challenging activity. When we have the self-efficacy to believe that we will be successful,
we literally won’t sweat it as much.
So, these are the reasons why self-efficacy is so important and one of the greatest
contributions of modern psychology to successful functioning and having a good life. But
the next thing may be one of the best lessons that we can ever learn and it has to do with
what we can do to increase our self-efficacy. I often say to students that even if they need to
fall asleep for most of the classes during the semester, this is one time that they may want to
be sure to be awake. There has been excellent research on what we can do to boost self-
efficacy and it boils down to five things.
The first is called “performance experiences.” For many of us, the best way to increase
our confidence is simply to practice performing the task we want to master or something
close to it. Even the smallest success on a similar task can increase self-efficacy. The other
principle that can help in using performance experiences to build self-efficacy is to break
down complex and challenging tasks into simpler “baby steps” that can be practiced and
mastered one at a time.
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The second way to increase self-efficacy is simply to watch or see someone else
successfully working towards the same kind of goal that we have. This could be watching a
good friend or family member, reading about a sports hero or famous person in history, or
even reading or watching fictional stories. If you have lost your parents, when you see an
orphan like Harry Potter come to believe in himself after he lost his – you are building your
own self-efficacy.
The third way to increase self-efficacy is to imagine ourselves doing what it takes to reach
our ultimate goal. But if we want to win a big fight like the movie character Rocky, it is not
so much imagining ourselves winning the fight as it is imagining ourselves getting up early
on a cold morning and running up and down those stairs. During the last part of this
challenge, we are going to give you some wonderful tools you can use to increase your self-
efficacy for creating a better future. Part of why they have been so effective is that they
boost your self-efficacy by getting you to imagine a better future and what you can do to
make it happen.
The fourth way to increase self-efficacy brings us back to the idea of strength in numbers
that we talked about with resilience. This fourth way is to get positive feedback from others
who encourage us in what we are doing in working toward our goal. This encouragement is
most effective if it comes from someone we look up to and who knows about what we are
trying to do and they may be easier to find than you think. During the last part of this
challenge, we will help you identify and enlist the kind of people who can do this for you.
The fifth and final way to increase self-efficacy brings us back to the connection between
self-efficacy and our physiological state of stress or relaxation. Just as having self-efficacy
leads to reduced emotional distress during a challenge, so too can decreasing our distress
lead to an increase in self-efficacy. If you can simply use mindful breathing or one of the
many other relaxation techniques available, you will automatically be increasing your self-
efficacy as you become less anxious and more relaxed.
Thus, these five ways to increase self-efficacy may be one of the most important things
for us to remember and try for ourselves. Self-efficacy is the belief that we can do what it
takes to reach our goals – and doing these things will not only our increase that belief but
also the likelihood that we will be successful.
Here are the tasks that will help you better understand the power of self-efficacy, how to
increase it, and how to use to your strengths to reach your goals.
Second, there is a video of an amazing young man who despite having no limbs, being
bullied for years, and contemplating suicide; went on to believe in himself and become an
inspiration to people around the world. You will be asked to reflect on how self-efficacy
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may have enabled him to do what he does and how just seeing him do it and learning about
his story may affect your self-efficacy.
Third, there is a reflection question about a time you were at your best when your self-
efficacy was high and what may have made it high for you. Identifying these kinds of
experiences and reflecting on them will help you understand why self-efficacy can be so
important and what may be some of the best ways for you to foster it.
Fourth, there is a writing task that asks you to identify a goal or area of your life where
you would like to increase your self-efficacy. After you identify it, the next step is to write
about how you might use one or more the five ways to increase self-efficacy you learned
about to do it. Since one of the five ways involves imagining yourself doing what it takes to
reach an important goal, you will be increasing your self-efficacy just by doing the task.
Fifth, there is another task that involves using one of your top strengths in a new way,
but this time you are asked to use it to reach one of your goals for the future. The first part
of the task involves brainstorming about how you might be able to use your strengths to
create a better future and the second part involves doing one of the things you come up
with and seeing what happens.

https://youtu.be/zHlEEC_kwgU
2. Special Video – “The Most Inspirational Video You Will Ever See
- Nick Vujicic's Story”
Watch the video and reflect on how self-efficacy may have enabled Nick to do some of
what he does without arms or legs and how seeing what he does may affect your self-
efficacy for doing different things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6HnFuzSJdQ
3. Reflection Question
What is a time you were at your best when you think that your self-efficacy was
particularly high (e.g., you were very confident that you would be successful)? Why do you
think your self-efficacy was so high? Which of the five ways of increasing self-efficacy may
have helped you increase yours?
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4. Increasing Your Self-Efficacy

Identify a goal or area of your life where you would like to increase your self-efficacy and
write about how you could use one or more of the five ways to increase it.
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5. Using a Top Strength in a New Way to Reach a Goal

This activity involves thinking about how you can use your top strengths to create a
better future and then doing something to use one of these strengths to make progress in
reaching a future goal. The first step is to brainstorm about what you may be able to do and
the second step is to try one of the things you think about and write about what happened.
What are some ways that you can use your top strengths to reach a future goal?
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Which of the ways that you identified would you most like to try? When and where can you
do it?
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What did you do to use one of your top strengths to reach one of your goals for the
future? How well did it work? What role do you think that self-efficacy may have played in
how well it worked?
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Self-Control
If you learn self-control, you can master anything.
— Unknown
Do you remember how earlier in this part of the challenge we talked about that sailboat
metaphor and how fixing the holes in the boat may be like working on our weaknesses and
lifting the sails like using our top strengths? I can imagine that for many the lesson of this
chapter may involve paying attention to some of those holes.
Despite the fact that it is a top strength for some people, self-control, which is also
known as self-regulation, is consistently one of the lowest strengths when you average
across all people around the world. What’s more, you can see how it could be quite a gaping
hole for some of us - and may cause us to take on too much water and run aground before
we can even get started!
But never fear – or at least never let that fear keep you from trying. Just as with self-
efficacy, I have some good news. There have been many promising discoveries about self-
control and how we can increase it.
First of all, just what is self-control? It has recently been compared to “willpower” by the
psychologist Roy Baumeister, who has probably done the most to advance its study in the
past 20 years. He defined self-control as the conscious and deliberate effort to control: (1)
thoughts – like getting rid of doubts about ourselves or our ability to succeed; (2) feelings –
like not hastily reacting in anger in traffic; (3) impulses – like not eating the rest of that
chocolate cake; and (4) performance – like hitting the right notes on the piano or going for
a record on that video game we love.
The classic experiment that demonstrated the importance of self-control is what has
been called the “Marshmallow experiment”, of which you will see a delightful example of in
the special video for this chapter. This experiment was first conducted at Stanford
University in the 1960s when 4-year-old boys and girls were left alone by themselves in a
room with one big marshmallow on the table right in front of them. Before they were left
alone, the experimenter told them that they could eat the marshmallow now or, if they did
not eat it before the experimenter returned, they could have another marshmallow.
After the experimenter leaves the room, a camera films what the kids do. Their facial
expressions and what they do to deal with this mild form of torture is priceless for the way
it shows us some of what we all do in the face of temptation. The results of the experiment
were, first, that a significant portion of the kids quickly ate that first marshmallow,
sometimes before the experimenter could even finish the instructions. In addition, there
was another significant portion of the kids who waited the 10-15 minutes that must have
seemed like an eternity for that second marshmallow.
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But the most remarkable thing about the findings is what the experimenters discovered
when they followed up with the four-year-olds fourteen years later. They found that those
in what the experimenters called the “waiter group” were doing much better than those in
what they called the “grabber group.” Specifically, those that waited for that second
marshmallow were better copers, more socially competent, self-assertive, trustworthy,
dependable, and better able to resist temptation as teenagers.
In addition, the “waiters” were better able to control themselves when things didn’t go
their way, more able to focus on their studies, did better in school, and had significantly
higher college entrance exam scores. In addition to these initial studies with young children,
there have been numerous studies showing how important self-control may be for
everything from mental and physical health to success at school, work, and in relationships.
The positive part of the psychology of self-control is that there is so much we can do to
strengthen it. The psychologist Roy Baumeister has compared self-control to a muscle that
anyone – no matter how big this particular hole is in their sailboat – can exercise and
strengthen just as we can our biceps and triceps. As with the ways we can increase self-
efficacy that we went over in the last chapter, what we know about how to increase self-
control may be some of the most important, powerful, and relevant lessons that modern
psychology has discovered for us.
Here are the five ways we know the most about that have been shown to increase our
self-control. The first is simply called “self-monitoring.” Most people don’t know that it is
responsible for more than half of the success of some of the hardest things we try to do –
like losing weight. It is simply noting on paper, a computer, or a smart phone that you did
something you wanted to do, or that you didn’t do something that you didn’t want to do.
This simple noting how you are doing with your self-control goal can make a big difference
in getting us to try to exercise it and how successful we are at it.
Second, and I’m sure that this combination of big words probably got someone who
studied this tenure, is what is called “implementation intention.” This involves setting a goal
for increasing self-control, like not having a hot fudge sundae at Baskin Robbins on your
way home from work. Next, you develop a plan for what to do when faced with potential
obstacles, like seeing a new ice cream store on your alternate way home! This may involve
practicing what you will do or say to yourself when you hear that little voice saying that one
more triple-dip sundae won’t hurt that much - just this one time.
The third way to increase self-control is called “mental contrasting” and this involves
three steps. The first is to identify an important change that you want to make. The second
is to identify and imagine the most positive and successful outcome that may result from
the change. The third is to add the part from the implementation intention about imagining
the obstacles that may stand in the way of you reaching your goal. In other words, envision
your goal and its benefits and then mentally walk through the obstacles to achieving it.
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The fourth way to increase self-control is one that I’m sure most of us have done at
some point but may have felt like it was cheating. In reality, it may be one of the only things
that work at first. It is called “stimulus control,” but could just as easily be called something
less technical like “out of sight, out of mind.” It involves keeping yourself physically distant
from the liquor store or not keeping alcohol in your house, or staying psychologically
distant by singing your favorite song to keep you from thinking about that triple-dip sundae.
The final way to increase self-control has by far my favorite name and is called “urge
surfing.” It turns out that if we have a strong craving for something, trying to put it out of
our mind may not always work. There is a famous experiment where people were asked not
to think about a white bear, and the harder they tried not to think about it, the more they
actually thought about it. Anyway, urge surfing is a skill that involves mindfully focusing on
rather than fighting a craving and watching it rise and fall like a big wave at the beach.
Whereas you may have thought it would never go away, if you hold off long enough from
grabbing that marshmallow, you learn that the craving actually does recede and, in the
process, gain more control to resist the temptation to eat before you can get another.
So, there are five things that we can all do to increase self-control – and give us the
discipline and willpower we need to reach out goals and avoid some of those temptations
that get in the way.
The tasks focus on understanding the value self-control, savoring and it relationship with
self-control, and how to foster them both:
Second, there is a special video of the Marshmallow experiment where you are asked to
see if you can identify something in what the children do that you have done in trying to
exercise self-control. Watching this video can be a way to better understand the many ways
that we all try to resist temptation and how imperfect we often are in actually doing it.
Third, you will be asked to identify an area in your life where you would most like to
increase self-control and write about how you can use one of the five ways you learned
about to do it. The goal is for you to write about something that may be particularly
challenging because just writing about it may help you gain the self-efficacy or belief that
you can actually do it.
Fourth, there is an activity that involves savoring, which can reduce our need to exercise
self-control by increasing our enjoyment of some of the things we try to control. For
example, if we learn to savor the taste of our favorite chocolate for a longer period of time,
we won’t need to eat as much to get the same enjoyment from it.
Fifth, there are reflection questions about the area of your life where exercising more
self-control might bring the greatest benefits and what you would most like to savor in the
future. Imagining the rewards of exercising self-control and the benefits of savoring will
increase your motivation for doing both and make it more likely that you will do them.
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Finally, I wanted to congratulate you. You have almost made it to the end of the second
part of this challenge. You may have had more self-control than you thought! The goal of
this part was for you to better see, appreciate, and use what is best in yourself and begin to
experience more of what it might be like for you to lift the sails and feel the wind at your
back in using it.
In the next part, we will build on your basic training and what you learned in this part to
make it come to life in your relationships with others and the world around you. In the
fourth and final part after that, we will bring try to put it all together in enabling you to
develop a plan for continuing to use what you have been learning to create the kind of life
you seek and that would make you most happy.

https://youtu.be/t2TtNgrGYbY
2. Special Video – “Marshmallow Test – (funny)”

Watch the video and see if you can identify something in what the children do that you
have also done to try to exercise self-control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc4EF3ijVJ8
3. Increasing Self-Control
Identify an area in your life where you would most like to increase self-control and write
about how you could use at least one of the five ways presented in the lesson to do it.
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4. Savoring
Write down five things that you could take time to savor and then savor one of them for
at least five minutes after spending a least a few minutes practicing mindful breathing.
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
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What did you savor? What was it like to do it? How was the experience the same or
different from what you expected?
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What is an area of your life where there may be the greatest benefits for exercising more
self-control? Write about the benefits, what they might feel like to do, and how they might
change your life.
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What would you most like to take more time to savor in the future? When, where, and
how can you take time to do this?
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Part 3 – Bringing Out

the Best around You
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you to improve your relationships and have a
more beneficial and rewarding involvement with
and impact on others and the world around you.
Topics: There are chapters about the value of
social intelligence; how to increase love, kindness,
and work for the greater good; and on fostering
the justice and forgiveness we need to be happy
and live well together.
Activities: The most important activities focus
on finding new ways to express love and kindness
with both friends and strangers and learning how
to be involved with causes you care about and
that can bring joy and meaning to your life.
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Social Intelligence
When someone shows you who they are,
Believe them the first time.
― Maya Angelou
Welcome to the third part of the positive psychology challenge! Let’s do a quick review
of where we have been in the challenge so far.
In the first part, you had basic training about positive psychology as the science of
happiness and what makes life worth living. You learned about happiness and well-being,
including PERMA theory, which says that there may be at least five things we seek for their
own sake: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.
You also learned about what can help make these five things more a part of our lives and
make positive change possible. These included the basic building blocks of positive
reappraisal, behavioral activation, and gradually exposing ourselves to what we are afraid of.
They also included mindfulness, as what enables us to more present to our lives; resilience
and stress-related growth, as what help us bounce back and benefit from stress; and wisdom
and creativity, which can help us find our way in stressful and uncertain times. The primary
activity you did variations of during several chapters involved learning to see and create
more good things in your life.
In the second part of the challenge, you had an opportunity to discover and learn how to
better use what is best in you. You learned about authenticity as being true to ourselves;
perseverance and its’ cousins grit and growth mindset; courage as what enables us to
overcome obstacles; self-efficacy as believing that we can do what it takes to reach our
goals; and self-control, which is like a muscle that we can exercise to strengthen. The
primary activity you did during most of the chapters in the second part involved identifying
your strengths and discovering new ways to use them.
During this third part of the challenge, we will focus on how you can use your strengths
and what you are learning to improve your relationships and have more of a positive impact
on the world around you. In the fourth and final part of this challenge, we provide the
lessons and activities which will enable you to put what you have been learning together and
use it as a foundation in planning for a better future. Since the focus in this third part is on
improving your relationships and better engaging with the larger community and world
around you, the lessons will involve the activities, attitudes, behaviors, and strengths that
will make this possible.
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In this chapter, we’ll begin by focusing on social intelligence as a foundation for

interacting with those around us. The next two chapters will be about fostering love and
kindness, followed by chapters on improving the larger community and building a healthy
society, and ending with a chapter on forgiveness as a way to find peace and healing when
things go awry in our relationships. The primary focus for the activities in this third part will
be on doing things that improve your relationships with others and with the larger groups
and communities of which you are a part.
The critical lesson for this third part of the challenge might be summed up in the words
of Chris Peterson that “other people matter” and the words of the John Donne that “no
man (or in modern terms: “no person”) - is an island.” That is, human beings need each
other, and our destiny is intricately tied to those around us.
The psychologist Ed Diener has probably done more to study happiness around the
world than anyone else. He has asked people of all ages, genders, ethnic groups, languages,
and cultures what makes them happy. The common denominator is having and being with
other people they care about and who care about them. In fact, when asked to describe
when they were happiest, Diener says that people almost always describe times when they
were enjoying themselves with close friends or family members.
The vital importance of our relationships is strongly reflected in our biology and
evolution as a species. As I previously noted, our intelligence did not evolve to do higher
math or physics, but to enable us to get along with others and successfully negotiate our
social world. That is why our intelligence may be best characterized as the social intelligence
that it takes to build and maintain trusting, supportive, and rewarding relationships with
other people and the larger community.
The one thing that has the strongest correlation with the size of our brains compared
with other species of primates is the size of our social network. The anthropologist Robin
Dunbar showed that human beings have both the largest brain size and the largest social
network. More than anything, we need our intelligence to build and maintain good
relationships.
There are other discoveries about our biology that also highlight the significance of our
relationships with others. First, there are parts of our brains that have specifically evolved to
play a role in social intelligence, such as the fusiform gyrus which enables us to recognize
facial expressions in others. Second, our brains have what have been called mirror neurons
that react both when we perform an action and when we see another person perform the
same action. Mirror neurons enable us to learn from and understand the actions and
experiences of others. Third, we have a powerful hormone called oxytocin, which is
associated with social bonding and is more active when we are close or even think about
being close to others. Fourth, in addition to our fight-or-flight response to stress, we also
have a slower acting response called the “tend-or-befriend” response that involves oxytocin
and motivates us to take care of and befriend others when we are under stress.
One of the most advanced aspects of our social intelligence involves what has been
called “theory of mind.” Rather than being a particular theory of how our minds generally
work, theory of mind refers to the fact that we are constantly developing working theories
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about how those around us are going to behave and what they are going to do next. It is not
hard to see how important it might be for us to be able to know whether we can trust those
around us. This may have been a critical survival skill in our evolutionary past as it still can
be today. Our fascination with a good murder mystery or reality TV show about who will
end up with the bachelor or the bachelorette are a testament to how good we are at theory
of mind, how important it is for us, and how much we enjoy developing and using it.
The bottom line of these discoveries in psychology and science is that our relationships
and engagement with the larger community are essential for surviving, thriving, and
flourishing – and that is why it is the central focus of this part of the challenge. In the
chapters of this part, you will learn what science has discovered about love and kindness,
how our happiness is related to the health of the community around us, how to make moral
and ethical choices that promote a healthy community, and what we can do to foster the
forgiveness sometimes necessary to make this possible. In the process, you will learn some
of the most effective and promising ways to improve your relationships as well as how to
have a positive impact on the community and world around you.
The activities for this part of the challenge are grounded in two things that are essential
for healthy and life-giving relationships with others. First, it is important for us to
experience and express appreciation and gratitude for the meaning and happiness others
bring to our lives. Second, the primary behaviors that foster good relationships include love,
kindness, and treating each other with fairness and justice and also with empathy and
compassion. The tasks and activities will focus on providing you with ways to use what you
are learning to better relate to others and engage with the world around you.
Here are the tasks for this chapter that can help you better understand and increase your
social intelligence:
Second, there is a special video about “Active Constructive Responding,” which is a way
of responding to someone when they have good news to tell us about something that has
happened to them. Active Constructive Responding has been shown to produce better and
more lasting relationships. It can be a simple, fun, and easy thing to practice for improving
our relationships. After you watch the video, you will be asked to identify people you may
be able to practice it with.
Third, there is an activity that involves making a list of the people in your life you are
most grateful for and writing down something about why you are grateful for each of them.
This will be a way to prepare you for other tasks that involve focusing on what you
appreciate about other people and writing and sharing a gratitude letter with someone who
has been important to you.
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Fourth, there is a task that involves completing a special form about what you appreciate
in someone who you may be particularly grateful for. Completing this form will help you
gain a better understanding of why this person is important to you and what you can do to
improve your relationship. Then you will be asked to make and carry out a plan to do
something to improve it.
Finally, there are reflection questions about who has been a good mentor or guide for
you and who you have been a good mentor or guide for. This can help you see why both
having and being a mentor can be so important for us.

https://youtu.be/PxI6jFYcGA4
2. Special Video – “Active Constructive Responding”

Watch the video and identify with whom and when you may be able to practice Active
Constructive Responding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRORihbXMnA
Who could you practice Active Constructive Responding with in the next week or two?
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3. Who Are You Grateful For?

Make a list of the people in your life for whom you are most grateful. Write down
something about why you are grateful to each of them.
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4. Relationship Appreciative Inquiry

Complete the “Relationship Appreciative Inquiry” questions (see Appendix H) for at
least one person currently in your life. Completing this inquiry will help you gain a better
understanding of why they are important to you. As you answer these questions, think
about what you might be able to do in the near future to improve your relationship with
them. After you complete the form, make and carry out a plan in the near future to improve
that relationship. After you complete the Relationship Appreciate Inquiry form, answer the
following questions:
Who did you focus on for the Relationship Appreciative Inquiry? What are some things
you can do to try to improve the relationship?
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What did you do to try to improve your relationship? What happened and how did it
affect both of you?
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Who has been a good mentor or guide for you and what have you learned from them??
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Who have you been a good mentor or guide for you and what do you think they have
you learned from you?
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Love
The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand.
They are moments when we touch one another.
― Jack Kornfield
In this chapter, I will talk about the different kinds of love we experience and that bring
joy and meaning to our relationships. Just as we learned in the last chapter that social
intelligence may be the primary focus of our intelligence, so the experience of love may be
the heart of our relationships and provide a foundation for much of our happiness.
The psychologist John Lee did a comprehensive study of the use of the word “love” in
history and literature and identified six different kinds of love, or what he calls “love styles.”
These include:
1. Eros - the passionate sexual love where a lover idealizes a partner.
2. Ludus - love that is short on commitment and played as a game.
3. Storge - the kind of mutual affection shared between friends.
4. Pragma - a pragmatic, practical, and mutually beneficial relationship.
5. Mania - a dramatic, stormy relationship with cycles of jealousy and breakups.
6. Agape - a self-giving love where one is fully concerned with the welfare of the other.
People may debate whether the game-playing Ludus or the stormy Mania may really
make us happy or are good for us, but the other four love styles do consistently appear to
play an important role in our happiness and well-being. These four are highlighted in much
current theory and research on love and relationships. While some people doubt whether a
completely self-giving love such as Agape is common, many see it in the sacrificial love of a
parent or grandparent for a child; or sometimes even in the devotion of a teacher to their
students, coaches to their players, or someone in a helping profession to those they serve.
In contrast, you can see aspects of the other three elements of Eros, Storge, and Pragma
in other research and theory about adult romantic relationships. The psychologist Robert
Sternberg developed what he called the Triangular theory of love where the three important
components of love include Passion, which is similar to Lee’s Eros; Intimacy, which is
similar to Lee’s Storge; and Commitment, which includes aspects of Lee’s Pragma and
Agape. Sternberg thinks that the quality of love we experience depends on the relative
strength of these three components. In addition, although it may be difficult to find and
sustain all three in the same relationship over time, they may still be a worthwhile goal.
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Psychologists Ellen Berscheid and Elaine Hatfield have studied the usual course of Eros
(in both Lee and Sternberg’s terms), which they call Passionate Love; and Storge (in Lee’s
terms) or Intimacy (in Sternberg’s terms), which they call Companionate Love in romantic
relationships. They compare Passionate Love to a fire that heats up and cools down quickly
and Companionate Love to the intertwining of branches that continue to grow together.
Berscheid and Hatfield think people often make one of two mistakes in the early stages
of a romantic relationships. The first mistake is to make a commitment too soon during an
early peak of Passionate Love. The second is to break-up too soon after Passionate Love
naturally begins to fall from its’ initially intense and high level. In both instances, the couple
may not wait long enough to see if it will be possible for Companionate Love to take root
and grow. Therefore, being aware of and placing more value on Companionate Love may
be a key to preventing these mistakes and improving many romantic relationships.
Aside from adult romantic relationships, the other most valued and important context
for love is lasting, close relationships with friends and family member. Although the focus
here is not necessarily on a romantic relationship, it does involve what Lee calls Storge,
Sternberg calls Intimacy, and Berscheid and Hatfield call Companionate Love. When I have
asked students in class which is more important to them, there is always 30-40% who say
Eros or Passionate Love but the consistent and clear majority of both women and men
have put Companionate Love or friendship at the top of their list.
There is another focus for love that has often been neglected in modern cultures that
have idealized self-sacrifice and self-giving forms of love. There has been a lot of recent
research showing the value of a form of self-love that has been called “self-compassion” or
“self-kindness.” This kind of self-love does not involve the self-inflation and lack of
empathy associated with narcissism but rather accepts and embraces our weakness,
limitations, and imperfections as part of our common humanity. This kind of self-love
appears to be particularly beneficial for caregivers, people who are vulnerable to compassion
fatigue, and those who suffer various forms of oppression and/or discrimination.
In putting all of this together, the growing body of theory and research on human love
points to the value of at least four kinds of loving relationships for our happiness and well-
being: (1) romantic relationships, (2) close friendships, (3) relationships where we are taught
or mentored by or teach or mentor another (similar to Lee’s self-giving Agape), and (4) a
relationship with ourselves characterized by the kindness, and compassion that accepts and
embraces ourselves for all of who we are, with both our strengths and our weaknesses.
In finishing this lesson on love, I want to leave you with some things that may enable
you to improve your relationships, especially close relationships with partners, friends, and
family members. After years of studying couples and seeing what predicts their staying
together or separating, the psychologist John Gottman has literally written the book on
what enables people to stay together and thrive in their relationships. Here are the seven
principles that he has identified for making a relationship last.
1. Enhance your love map – become familiar with your partner, friend, or family
member’s world including their worries, hopes, goals, and strengths.
2. Nurture fondness and admiration – by meditating on what you love, appreciate, and
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cherish in them (as was a goal of the “Relationship Appreciative Inquiry” that was a
task in the Chapter 13).
3. Turn towards them – be there for them through big and small events and give them
affection and support when they ask for it.
4. Accept influence – share power with them by deciding things together and take their
feelings into account.
5. Solve solvable problems – learn to resolve problems and conflicts with tolerance and
compromise to prevent negative feelings from escalating.
6. Overcome gridlock – when stuck in a conflict, be patient in exploring the issues that
may have caused the gridlock by letting it sit for now and coming back to it later.
7. Create shared meaning – create rituals and symbols that you can continue to share
using things like pictures, videos, or songs that express important parts of your
relationship.
In addition to these, I would add the Active Constructive Responding that was the focus
of the special video in Chapter 13. As the video explained, this involves responding to good
news with empathy, enthusiasm, and asking for elaboration and finding ways to celebrate
with them. Research has shown that Active Constructive Responding produces better and
longer lasting relationships than other ways of responding to good news.
The last thing to do in this lesson is help you think about the different ways that people
give and receive love in their close relationships. The author Gary Chapman identified what
he calls five different Languages of Love. You will have the chance to take a survey for this
chapter to help you see which of the following languages you prefer:
1. Words of affirmation – it involves encouraging, affirming, and appreciating another.
2. Physical touch – the non-verbal use of body language and touch to show love.
3. Receiving gifts – thoughtful gifts and gestures to show gratitude for someone.
4. Quality time – uninterrupted and focused conversations and time together.
5. Acts of service – doing chores, errands, and other things to lighten someone’s load.
Before we finish our lesson on love, it is important to note that while the VIA
classification has identified and defined love as a strength, there are things we may call
“love” (e.g., such as Ludus and Mania in Lee’s terms) that may not always foster happiness
and well-being. When trying to understand the role of love in our happiness and well-being,
it is particularly important to be clear about what kind of “love” we are focusing on. But
even with this caution about some of what we may call love, there is little doubt that the
forms that involve mutual giving and support are often one of our greatest sources of joy,
happiness, meaning, and fulfillment. We hope that this challenge will enable you to find new
ways to express love in the forms that best bring each of these more into your life.
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Here are the tasks designed to help you understand, recognize, and improve your ability
to give, receive, and benefit from love in your life:
Second, there is a special video called Love Liberates by Maya Angelou and you are asked
to think about how love may have liberated you and how you could love someone else in a
way that might liberate them.
Third, there are reflection questions asking you to identify and write about one of the
best loving or kind acts that someone has done for you. You are also asked to think about
how it has affected you and how you can give back and honor what was done for you.
Fourth, we want you to write a letter expressing your gratitude to someone you have not
fully or properly thanked. Ideally, it would be someone you could read or send it too and
you would share it as soon as you can in the near future. Research has shown that this can
be a powerful way to increase our happiness. While there are many ways that you can
continue to express gratitude to the people you come across in your life, writing a letter like
this and sharing it has been a great way for many people to get started.
Fifth, we want you to take the Languages of Love survey to identify the language(s) that
you prefer and think about how knowing what you prefer may enable you to better give and
receive love. This will help you better understanding the different ways that people often try
to express love and how sometimes we completely miss expressions we don’t understand.

https://youtu.be/D7igjMBjqSk
2. Special Video – “Dr. Maya Angelou – Love Liberates”

Watch the video and reflect on how love may have liberated you and how you could love
someone else in a way that might liberate them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbecKv2xR14&t=89s
What is one of the best acts of kindness, compassion, or love that anyone has done for
you? Be specific about what they did and why it may have been important to you
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How has the act that you describe affected you? What could you do to give back or
honor what they did for you?
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4. Gratitude Letter
Think of a person who you have not fully or properly thanked. If possible, try to identify
someone whom you could personally thank in the near future. Then write a letter
expressing your gratitude. Next, read or share your letter with them in as personally way as
you can. You may want to use the following space to write all or part of your letter and/or
save it in another private place. You could also use the space below to write about what it
was like for you to write your letter, share it with the other person, how they responded, and
what you learned from doing it.
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5. Languages of Love Survey

Take the Languages of Love survey to identify your preferred languages of love and
answer the question below.
https://www.5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/
How might understanding your language of love enable you to better give and receive love
with those who are most important in your life?
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Kindness
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
― Philo
So far in this third part of the challenge, we have focused on social intelligence because
of the central place that relationships have in our lives and on love because it is so often a
part of what makes our lives worth living.
In this chapter, will begin focusing less on our immediate relationships and what we
receive from others, and more on how we can have a positive impact on all those we know
and love and also on strangers in the larger world beyond. Research has consistently shown
that kindness can play a primary role in increasing our happiness and well-being. Kindness
is one of those things that many people say they value greatly and that we can’t exercise
enough. However, it is also something that some people think may not always be a good
thing and could even hurt us or be a sign of weakness.
Actually, kindness is at the very heart of this challenge and for many people may be the
thing that has the most potential for changing our lives for the better. There is a popular
foreign movie where the main character decides to do the same experiment that we hope
you will try for this part of the challenge. The script for the movie was written by a director
who had enough previous success that he had earned the opportunity to do something that
was meaningful and close to his heart. He wrote a script that included as many of the
extraordinary acts of kindness that he had seen across the years as possible – all centered
around the main character. The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards and won
an award for the best European screenplay.
The name of the movie is Amelie and it was about a girl in Paris named Amelie. Amelie
grew up as the lonely and neglected only child of parents who were completely self-
absorbed and could not relate to her. Her world changed one day when as a lonely young
adult she found a box of childhood treasures in her bedroom wall. She decided to try to
find the person that the treasure box had belonged to and made a deal with herself about it.
If she was able to find the person and it had a positive impact on them, then she resolved to
change her life. She would continue to be kind in as many ways as she could.
Without spoiling too much of the movie if you haven’t seen it, her initial experiment was
a success and the rest of the movie is about how her acts of kindness ripple out to change
the lives of people around her. Moreover, her kindness also brings her what she most
wanted and most feared – an intimate relationship with a man she in trying to be kind and
who she came to love. If you remember in the second part of this challenge, I said I hoped
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you would begin to feel the wind at your back the way that Steve Wonder did when he came
to really appreciate his gift for hearing. In this chapter, I want to add my hope that you
might do the same type of experiment Amelie did and be surprised by the same kind of joy.
One of the most promising and encouraging findings in positive psychology is the
confirmation and support of what Amelie discovered and what we all can too. Acts of
kindness have tremendous potential for increasing happiness and well-being – both for
those we are kind to and for ourselves. Some of you may have already experienced this,
while others may be a bit more skeptical.
Before I go any farther, I want to say something about why kindness may be such a
potent catalyst for happiness and positive change – and I also want to say something about
how it may have sometimes gotten a bad name. There seem to be two overarching ways
that kindness may benefit us.
First, being kind to people we know or can have a relationship with generally results in
an upward spiral of reciprocal giving, where we increasingly get something back from
others. It is karma with a big K.
Second, kindness able enables us to feel good about ourselves. We come to see ourselves
as someone who can have a positive impact on others and make a difference to those
around us. Good karma is great but this is probably the main reason that Amelie changed –
and this is where kindness can be a real source of transformation even when we don’t
expect or get anything in return. On the wall of Mother Teresa’s room in Calcutta, there
was reported to be a sentence about kindness that said – “if you are kind, people may
accuse you of ulterior motives… be kind anyway.”
This form of kindness to strangers or to those who can’t or don’t give back can be
extremely powerful. No matter what anyone has done to us, we can still choose to be kind.
This is what Nelson Mandela did when he was in prison for so long and it won the hearts of
the prison guards who came to admire and respect him so much. This is the kind of power
that Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. discovered and embraced that made reconciliation,
healing, and social change happen where it before seemed impossible.
But if kindness can come back to us through those we know and can also empower us in
unforeseen ways, then why does it sometimes get a bad name? Why aren’t people kind more
often? The main reason may be that we often mistake kindness for an imposter. This
imposter can be seen in the distinction made between what might be called “naïve
kindness” and “wise kindness.” Naïve kindness is when we do something that may look or
seem nice not because it is best for another person, but because we want to be liked or are
afraid to do what might really be most kind and best for the other person.
In contrast, wise kindness is like the Jedi saber that Jesus flashed when he told those who
were about to stone the woman who had been caught committing adultery – “Let he who is
without sin cast the first stone.” Although it may not have felt like kindness at the time to
those in the crowd who dropped the stones one at a time and left; it may have been quite
kind in may have called on the “better angels of their nature” - and it certainly would feel
profoundly kind to that woman who was set free and got a second chance to live.
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Which brings us back to the story of Amelie and the last big plot twist in this chapter
about kindness. Before Amelie could really be transformed and sustain her desire to be the
beacon of kindness that she fantasized about becoming, she needed to allow someone else
to love her – and thereby become happy in filling her own cup. This brings us back to why
it might be important for us to make a list of those we are grateful for and make sure there
are those on our list who see us and love us for who we are.
For now, more than anything else that we ask you to do in this challenge, we want to
encourage you to carry out the same kind of bold experiment that Amelie did in the movie.
Give yourself the chance to find the ways you can become like that Jedi knight, that black
belt master, that virtuoso - but not at playing the violin. Instead, become a master at doing
things you enjoy in using your own strengths to bring your own unique expression of
kindness to those around you. Then, like Amelie, just wait and see what happens.
Here are the tasks that will help you understand and appreciate the power of kindness
and find more ways to practice and experience its benefits:
First of all, as after every chapter, there is a link to a video where you can see and hear
me going over the lesson for this chapter.
Second, there is a special video on The Power of Kindness by Johann Berlin where he
talks about why kindness may be so important and gives us good ideas for practicing it.
Third, there is an activity that involves going through a list of many different kind acts
and identifying new ones that you would most like to try. Reviewing comprehensive lists
like this can be a good way to become more creative in finding new ways to be kind and in
expressing our top strengths and what we really enjoy doing in being kind.
Fourth, the next activity builds on the review of the list of kind acts by asking you to
make a top ten list of kind acts you would most like to try for someone you already know
and another top ten list of kind acts you would most like to try for a stranger.
Fifth, the last activity involves trying one of the new kind acts that you identified for
someone you know and answering questions about what happened. This is a way of
beginning to do the same kind of experiment that Amelie did in the movie and that we
focused on in this chapter.

https://youtu.be/P7lnMXdEbNQ
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2. Special Video – “The power of kindness: Johann Berlin”

Watch this special video on the power of kindness and think about what it might be
calling you to do and what impact it may have on the person or persons who are the
recipients of your kindness – and what impact it may have on you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG-SmD5X5Kk
3. Identifying Acts of Kindness

Because we so easily fall into a rut in thinking there are only a few ways to be kind, we
want you to read through the whole list of the Acts of Kindness Planner (see Appendix I).
As you do, put a letter in the “To Try” column to indicate those you would most like to try.
Be sure to include acts that you can do for both people you already know and for strangers.
Put an “A” for those you would most like to try, a “B” for those that aren’t quite as high on
your list, and a “C” for those you would like to consider again at some point.
In the future, after you have tried any of those that you check, there are also columns
where you can put in a grade (A, B, C, D, etc.) to indicate how much of a positive impact
you think doing the kind act had on you (the “On Self” column) and on any others that the
kind act was for or were affected in some way (the “On Other” column).
4. Planning Acts of Kindness
Starting with what you checked in the Acts of Kindness Planner, make a list below of 10
acts of kindness you would like to try for someone you already know and then also make a
list of 10 acts of kindness you would like to try to a stranger.
The Top Ten to Try for Someone I Know:
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
6. _________________________________________________________________________
7. _________________________________________________________________________
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8. _________________________________________________________________________
9. _________________________________________________________________________
10. _________________________________________________________________________
The Top Ten to Try for a Stranger:
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
6. _________________________________________________________________________
7. _________________________________________________________________________
8. _________________________________________________________________________
9. _________________________________________________________________________
10. _________________________________________________________________________
5. Doing a Kind Act for Someone You Know

Perform one kind act that you identified for someone you know and answer the
following questions. Try to choose a new and unique act.
Who did you do the kind act for and what did you do?
_____________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
How did the person (or persons) you did kind act for respond and how did doing the kind
act and their response make you feel?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Community Positive Psychology

Be the change you wish to see in the world.
― Mahatma Gandhi
The focus of the lesson for this chapter is something we might call “community positive
psychology.” Psychology sometimes gets stuck in only focusing on individuals, as if we were
completely isolated from our social network and the world around us. There is an area of
psychology called “community psychology” that focuses on the effects of the broader
community on the behavior of individuals and the effects of individuals on the community.
In this chapter and the next, we are going to make the bridge from individual to
community well-being because the health of the community and how we participate in it
strongly affects our individual happiness and well-being. In fact, it may be that most of what
brings us happiness is rooted in and related to our place in the larger community and world.
If anything is the foundation for our connection with others, it is our capacity for
empathy. Empathy may be what enables us to connect with others and what can make it
difficult for us to be truly happy when those around us are suffering. In the earlier chapter
on social intelligence, you learned about how our brains have mirror neurons that fire the
same way when we see someone else does something as when we do the same thing. In
fact, one of the neuroscientists who has studied them, Vilayanur Ramachandran, has called
them “Gandhi neurons” because of how they connect us with each other.
The psychologist Paul Wong has identified different kinds of empathy that involve these
mirror neurons and other aspects of our biology, such as oxytocin, the hormone involved in
social bonding. Here are the five kinds of empathy that Wong has identified:
First, he says we have an “instinctual empathy” that is hardwired, we share with other
species, and you see when animals of one species respond to the distress calls of another.
Second, we often experience “relational empathy” that refers to the stronger feeling of
empathy we have for those we are in a close relationship with, know well, or care about.
Third, there is the “experiential empathy” that we have for those we share a common
experience with, such as being depressed or having been abused or assaulted. It could also
involve sharing a good experience, such as when people in a city celebrate together when
their home team wins a championship.
Fourth, there is what Wong calls “basic empathy” that involves learning a set of skills
such as when a counselor or therapist learns how to do active listening and pay more
attention to non-verbal cues.
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Finally, there is “advanced empathy” that involves a detective-like Sherlock Holmes

ability to make clever inferences and put together seemingly trivial and unrelated clues to
better understand another person. You might experience this with a good friend or
counselor when they say something about you that makes you feel like they know you better
than you know yourself.
The bottom line is that we not only have a hardwired, inborn capacity for empathy with
humans and other living beings; we also often have stronger empathy for those we are close
to and who have similar experiences. And finally, we can do much to train ourselves and
learn ways to increase our empathy and extend it to the larger community.
One example where I saw this happen was with my wife who grew up not having any
experience with dogs. When she first began living with our playful and affectionate German
Shorthaired Pointer, she was surprised to find that this dog seemed to have very real
feelings and even seemed to have the empathy to comfort my wife when she was upset.
Another powerful example of our capacity to grow in empathy is provided by Steven
Pinker who reviewed the incidence of human violence over the past several hundred years
and concluded that it was generally on the decline. Using the phrase coined by Abraham
Lincoln, he titled the book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence is on the Decline.
Pinker thinks that one of the main reasons that violence has declined is that our capacity to
empathize was extended by the great increase in literacy, which made it possible for us to
read about and thereby understand the lives and experiences of many more people.
If this has been the case for reading, then it may be much more now because so many
people can connect in real time around the world using computers, smart phones, and social
media platforms. Of course, social media can also have a dark side that capitalizes on our
tendency to categorize people as us vs. them or as being in the in-group or the out-group.
This evolutionary tendency is similar to our negativity bias that focuses on apparent threats
while missing many of the good things around us. Just as we evolved to pay so much
attention to those threats, we may have also evolved to first mistrust those who seem
strange or different to us.
But Pinker thinks that “the better angels of our nature” – through empathy - have been
growing stronger. When we think about the implications of positive psychology for our life
together, extending our capacity for empathy to ever larger circles may be a promising
direction and challenge for the future. The video you will watch for this chapter called the
“empathetic civilization” is by the social theorist Jeremy Rifkin and may give you a better
idea of what Pinker is saying and where positive psychology may enable us to begin to go.
In light of Pinker and Rifkin’s work and the findings about the central importance of
empathy, one of the most important choices that the positive psychology community may
have to make is how much to focus on solely helping individuals become their best in
competition with each other or to also focus on building healthy institutions and
communities. So often psychology has mirrored the Western world and focused on helping
individuals assumed to be competing in a zero-sum game with only winners or losers.
Not long ago, I went to a conference in California honoring the career of one of the co-
founders of positive psychology as he was retiring – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He was in his
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early 80s and despite a long and fruitful career studying things like creativity and flow, many
people spoke about how he never forgot the social, economic, and political repression that
he, his family, and others suffered when he grew up in Eastern Europe.
After his final talk near the end of the conference, the first person who raised his hand
asked him what he wanted his legacy to be and what his hopes were for the future of
positive psychology. Csikszentmihalyi said that as much as he knew that things like
creativity and flow could make individuals successful, more than anything else he hoped
that people would use what he discovered about creativity and flow to make ours a “win-
win” world for everyone.
I think this may be one of the most important lessons we are learning from positive
psychology about our relationship with the larger community. Because of our capacity for
empathy and how important relationships, engagement, and meaning are to us, we may not
really be happy unless we become our best as individuals and also work to bring out the
best in the people and communities around us.
The tasks for today are designed to help you think about and experience what we are
discovering about how to create a better life together:
Second, there is a special video called the “Empathetic Civilisation” by Jeremy Rifkin for
you to watch and then reflect on the experiences that you may have had that enabled you to
extend your empathy beyond your immediate family and social network. This video
presents one of the most compelling visions of what a “community positive psychology”
might towards in the future.
Third, there is a task that involves doing one of the kind acts for a stranger from the top
10 list you created in the last chapter and answering questions about what you did and how
it may have affected you and the other people involved. Doing kind acts both for people
you know and don’t know will help you understand how their effects on you may be similar
and different.
Fourth, the next task involves making a list of the groups of people or communities that
you are most grateful for and writing something about why you are grateful for them. This
will help you understand how important these larger groups and communities may be to us
in addition to other individual people and our smaller circle of friends and family members.
Fifth, there is a task that begins with making a list of the causes or things that you could
be involved with that might have a positive impact on the larger world. There is also a place
where you can rate their potential importance and your willingness and ability to do
something to support one or more of them. This task may help you find new causes that
you may value and enjoy being involved and finding ways to use your strengths to support.
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https://youtu.be/7nDAjP5Jf2g
2. Special Video – “RSA Animate: The Empathetic Civilisation”

Watch the video and reflect on what experiences you have had that have enabled you to
extend your empathy to people who are different from you in some way such as gender,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, language, culture, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
3. Kind Act for a Stranger

Perform one of the kind acts you identified in the last chapter you would like to try for a
stranger and answer the following questions. Try to do something you haven’t done before.
Who did you do the kind act for and what did you do?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
How did the person (or persons) that you did the kind act for respond and how did the
whole experience make you feel?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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How was the effect on you of doing a kind act for a stranger similar to or different from the
effect on you of doing a kind act for someone you know, as was a task in the last chapter?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Gratitude for Groups and Communities

Make a list of the groups of people or communities that you are most grateful for and
write down something that you are grateful to each of them for.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. Community Cause Inventory
Using the “Community Cause Inventory” (see Appendix J), list the causes that are
important and rate their potential importance and your willingness and ability to be involved
in each of them.
What cause would you most like to support? What could you do to support it?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Fairness and Justice

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
― Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the last chapter, you learned about how much the larger community may affect our
happiness as individuals and that being happy and having a life worth living may mean
working to improve that community. In this chapter, the lesson is about what may help to
guide us in making the difficult moral choices that we may need to make along the way.
We all have a sense of fairness that evolved to enable us to live with and get along with
other people. In the special video for this chapter, you will see how this sense of fairness
may even exist in other species. This sense of fairness readily becomes apparent when you
see one sibling in a family get more dessert than another or when someone cuts in front of
you in line at the grocery store.
In order to get along with each other and have a just and healthy society, it is important
that things be distributed fairly, and that there is justice for those who are harmed or who
harm others. The author Karen Armstrong has pointed out that every world religion has a
version of the Golden Rule, which in its Christian form, is to “do unto others as you would
have them do unto you.” At the same time, there is much debate about the concept of
fairness and whether everyone should be treated the same or whether the justice system
should take individual differences into account and focus more on equity and creating a
level playing field for everyone.
In this chapter, I will tell you about three things that can benefit us in making the
difficult moral choices that are sometimes necessary for living well together in community.
The first two have to do with how we make these choices and the last may help us reduce
the bias that can prevent us from making the best choice. There are two primary schools of
thought about what may inform moral choices and they mirror the way that we sometimes
feel pulled between our thoughts and emotions, on one hand, and between equality as
treating everyone the same and equity as considering individual differences and the context.
The first school is called the Justice Tradition and was founded by Lawrence Kohlberg
who identified six stages that we may move through from lower to higher levels of moral
development.
The first stage is called “obedience and punishment driven” where we focus on the
consequences of an action in deciding whether it is right or not. It is right as long as we
don’t get punished, which may simply mean we don’t get caught.
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The second stage is called “self-interest driven” or the “what’s in it for me stage” and it
involves rationalizing that what we do is right as long as it is good for us as individuals.
The third stage is driven by “interpersonal accord and conformity” where we think that
something we do is right as long as our close circle of family and friends approve or benefit.
The fourth stage is driven by “authority and social order obedience” where we obey the
laws of the society because we don’t think it could function if we didn’t.
The fifth stage is driven by the “social contract” where laws are not viewed as set in
stone but as social contracts than can be changed when a new law may do a better job of
promoting the greater good.
Finally, the sixth stage is driven by universal ethical principles that are based on abstract
reasoning about what may be moral or just across situations, cultures, and time.
From Kohlberg’s perspective, it was rare to find anyone whose level of moral judgement
consistently operated at the sixth stage. Also, you can see how the later stages place a greater
emphasis on larger groups of people and making decisions that might place less emphasis
on one person or group vs. another. Thus, Kohlberg emphasized identifying the guiding
principles for making moral choices and applying them equally and consistently across
different people and situations.
Interestingly, the other primary school of thought that contrasts with Kohlberg’s
emphasis on abstract reason and universal principles was founded by one of his students.
This student was Carol Gilligan, a woman who has focused more on the value of emotion,
relationships, and context in making tough moral choices. She founded what has been called
the Care Tradition of moral reasoning, which has three primary stages that may better
reflect the experience of women and others not part of a dominant power structure:
The first stage is called “orientation to individual survival” and it is focused on enabling
us to make it through the earlier times in life when we are most helpless and vulnerable.
The second stage is called “goodness defined as self-sacrifice for others” and reflects the
experience of women and others whose life may be defined by a role of service to others.
The third and final stage is called the “morality of non-violence: not hurting self or
others” which echoes the philosophy of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. and stresses
self-kindness and self-compassion we talked about in Chapter 8 about love.
In addition, because of the biases that may come with power, Gilligan places more
emphasis on the context of those who are at a disadvantage and the necessity of considering
their vulnerability. Thus, while Kohlberg emphasized universal principles that don’t favor
one group over another, Gilligan provides a potential corrective in asking us to also
consider the context of those with less power.
The final thing that may help us make tough moral choices has to do with the way that
open-mindedness has been defined and understood in the VIA classification. While some
define open-mindedness as simply being open to different people and perspectives, the VIA
classification has defined it in a way that also takes into account a common human bias. In
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the VIA classification, open-mindedness is defined as actively searching for evidence against
our favored beliefs, plans, or goals, and weighing such evidence fairly.
This active searching is necessary because of our “selective exposure” bias whereby we
often unknowingly only expose ourselves to beliefs we are already comfortable and familiar
with. Thus, a conservative person may only watch Fox news, a progressive person may only
watch Rachel Maddow, and the empathy that a community positive psychology might try to
foster and extend is cut short.
Selective exposure is similar to what has been called a “confirmation bias,” which is the
tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of our pre-existing beliefs. Thus, if a
conservative person does watch Rachel Maddow or a progressive person watches Fox news,
they may unknowingly maintain their beliefs by filtering what they hear through a particular
way of interpreting it.
The result may be that people get lost in different narratives and become polarized losing
out on the opportunity to make better moral decisions because they don’t have the whole
picture. The genius of the VIA definition of open-mindedness is that it emphasizes “actively
searching for evidence against our favored beliefs” which can help us overcome our
selective exposure and confirmation biases.
So, in putting together what we know about the need for making moral choices and what
can help us make better ones, there are three important points to remember:
First, when we know that being happy and having a life worth living may involve
working for a better community, we will be faced with tough choices about the kind of
fairness and justice that are necessary for us to live well together.
Second, while Kohlberg demonstrated that universal ethical principles may help us avoid
favoring one person, situation, or group over another; Gilligan challenged us to also take
into account the way that having power may distort the picture and create a bias against
those who are most vulnerable.
Third, the kind of open-mindedness that actively searches for evidence contradicting
what we assume to be true may help us avoid the kind of biases that Gilligan highlights and
that people in a dominant group or with power may be particularly vulnerable to.
The tasks focus on our relationship with the community and how to foster fairness and
justice in our relationships with each other and the larger community and world.
Second, there is a special video to watch about a fascinating experiment on fairness with
Capuchin monkeys and a question for you to reflect on regarding when you may have had a
similar reaction as the monkey who was treated unfairly.
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Third, there is a task that involves writing about ways you have fallen into selective
exposure and how you can practice open-mindedness to reduce it. This may be a promising
for us begin to do our part in reducing polarization about things like religion and politics.
Fourth, the next task is to do something to support one of the causes that you identified
in the last chapter and writing about what you did and how it went. This can help us learn
how much meaning and gratification we can find in contributing to the greater good.
Fifth, we want you to identify ways that you can demonstrate love, kindness, and
compassion for yourself and do at least one of them in the near future. One of the reasons
that people are not able to sustain acts of kindness and support for the causes that they
believe in is that they do not take adequate care of themselves. As we discussed in the
chapter on love, the ability to love and be kind and compassionate toward your self is a
form of love that can be very important but that many neglect or don’t practice well.

https://youtu.be/YO4QaE4Dxmk
2. Special Video - “Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally”

Watch the video and reflect on where you have had a similar reaction to being treated
unfairly. What feelings did you have and what were you motivated to do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg
3. Countering Selective Exposure with Open-mindedness

Write about the ways that you think you have fallen into selective exposure and how you
might be able to use open-mindedness, as defined in the VIA classification, to reduce it.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. Do Something to Support a Cause

Begin by reviewing the list of the causes you would like to support and what you wrote
for your action plan if you did the Community Cause Inventory task in the last chapter.
Next, select a cause that you rated highly in terms of importance and your willingness and
ability to support it. Finally, do something to actually support the cause that you have
chosen and answer the questions below.
What cause did you contribute to and what did you do?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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How did what you do affect the other people involved? How did it affect you?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
How was the effect on you of doing something to support a cause similar to or different
from the effect on you of doing the acts of kindness you may have done in the previous two
chapters for a stranger and someone you knew?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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5. Self-Love
There are two steps to the activity. First, brainstorm about the ways that you could
demonstrate love, kindness, and/or compassion toward yourself and then do one of them
and write about how it affects you.
What are five things that you could do to demonstrate love, kindness, and/or
compassion toward yourself in the next week or two? Which would you most like to try
and can plan to do in the next week or two?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What did you to expressed self-love for yourself and how did it go? What did you learn
about how you can better love yourself in the future?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Forgiveness
Unforgiveness is like drinking poison yourself
and waiting for the other person to die.
― Marianne Williamson
Welcome to the final chapter of Part 3 of the positive psychology challenge!

First, I want to thank you for staying with it during this part. As with other forms of
psychology, you may not have expected such a strong emphasis on your relationships with
others and the larger community and world.
Second, I want to warn you that the focus of the lesson today may not be for the faint of
heart and also may not be something you are struggling with right now. But it is something
that represents one of the best hopes that we have for healing the wounds we sometimes
inflict on each other and for halting the cycle of violence and suffering we can become
trapped in. That something is forgiveness.
It was only recently that someone in psychology was finally bold enough to attempt to
study it. The person most responsible for bringing the study of forgiveness to the forefront
in psychology is Everett Worthington – after his mother was murdered in 1996. The
emotional fallout of the murder was so devastating him and his family that it resulted in his
brother committing suicide.
So, Everett didn’t study forgiveness out of a casual interest, but because he was
desperately trying to find a way to do it himself and didn’t know how. He ended up
publishing several papers and writing a couple of books about it. Eventually, he and his
sister were able to forgive and find the peace that they sought. Now, more than two decades
later, there is a rich and growing body of research and theory on forgiveness and on what
we can do to foster it in our lives
Probably the best place to start is to be clear about what we mean by forgiveness. Just
what is it? It turns out that people have lots of different definitions and perspectives on
forgiveness and that some of them may be more damaging and destructive than helpful.
Robert Enright is another psychologist who has written a book about forgiveness and he
helps us understand what forgiveness is by first telling us what it is not.
One, forgiveness is not excusing or pardoning what another person has done.
Two, it is not trying to justify or rationalize that it was okay for them to do it.
Three, forgiveness does not mean denying the harm of what someone has done.
Four, and this is a big one, forgiveness does not mean having to forget what another
person did to hurt us. We may eventually forget it, but as George Santayana said, “those
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who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It may be important for us to
remember so that we can protect ourselves and not allow others to hurt us in the same way.
Fifth, and this is also a big one for some of us, forgiveness does not necessarily mean
getting back together or continuing to be in a relationship with someone who hurt us. We
may choose to if they change their behavior – but we can forgive someone even if it is
better not to go back to them.
If these are some things that forgiveness is not, then what it is? First, forgiveness is
giving up or ceasing to harbor resentment for a wrong that another has committed against
us. This doesn’t mean it is easy or happens overnight. Forgiveness is a process that takes
time and it may be the greater the harm, the more time we will need to work through it.
Second, forgiveness involves reducing the negative feelings, thoughts, and behaviors we
have toward the person who hurt us. When we are close to the time someone has hurt us,
this may not seem possible but is likely to change with patience and self-compassion.
Third, if we have been in a relationship with the person who hurt us for a long time, we
may again begin to have some good feelings about them, whether or not they change their
behavior and whether or not we decide to continue in a relationship with them
Fourth, and this is probably the most important, forgiveness is a process that can take a
lot of time and mental and physical energy. It can be exhausting to continue to experience
the intensity of feelings and ups and downs that we may experience along the way.
Fifth, forgiveness often eventually seems like a paradox. While we thought we would be
diminished and never escape the anger, hurt, or preoccupation with what happened – one
day we actually feel lighter, enriched, and free in a way we didn’t think possible!
So, on the one hand, forgiveness is not excusing, pardoning, justifying, denying, or trying
to forget what someone has done to us and we do not necessarily need to go back or
continue a relationship with the person who hurt us.
On the other hand, forgiveness is a process that can set us free in ways we may not have
thought possible. We may become free from the anger, pain, and preoccupation with what
was done to us. In its place, we may be pleasantly surprised with the kindness, love, and
compassion we feel for ourselves and others – and even for the person who hurt us.
Some of the most encouraging good news that positive psychology has brought to us is
that forgiveness is possible. But before we finish this chapter, I want to say something about
the kind of things that people like Everett Worthington and Robert Enright have suggested
might help make it more possible for us to forgive.
The first is to commit ourselves to the process even though it may take time and
sometimes it may not seem like we are making much progress.
The second is to freely express our thoughts and feelings about what happened in
writing, with the goal of eventually being able to write about our intention to forgive.
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The third is to get the support of other people with at least one person we can really trust
to confide in and who understands how forgiveness can be a long process.
The fourth is to practice self-compassion in being patient and kind with ourselves and to
forgive ourselves when we feel like giving up or don’t think we are making progress.
Sometimes the first step in forgiveness is to forgive ourselves for feeling stuck for so long
and not wanting to forgive.
The fifth is to try to develop empathy and understanding for how someone could do
what they did to hurt us - and for how we may sometimes do things that hurt others.
The sixth thing that may help us with forgiveness is to be open to the possibility of the
stress-related growth that we talked about, where we learn or benefit from what happened
in some way that is good for us. Examples might include learning to have more love and
compassion for ourselves or increased wisdom in knowing how not to get hurt again.
There is one final thing that Everett Worthington, Robert Enright, and others who have
studied forgiveness think is particularly valuable. Once we feel like we have gotten the
freedom and peace we sought in forgiving, many find it useful to do something to mark,
celebrate, or savor what they have accomplished. This could include things like writing a
forgiveness letter, releasing balloons, or having a party with the friends who were with us
along the way to celebrate our accomplishment with them.
In conclusion, while forgiveness may be hard to practice, it offers great hope for healing
the many of the ways we hurt each other. It is reported that Gandhi said, “An eye for an
eye leaves the whole world blind.” If so, then forgiveness may be what makes it possible for
us to see again and find our way out the cycles of violence in which we sometimes get stuck.
This third part of the challenge has been about what we can do to better create the kinds
of relationships and communities that we need in order to be truly happy. When we
inevitably get off track in doing things that either unintentionally or intentionally hurt each
other, forgiveness may be a bridge that offers us the hope of getting back on the track of
creating a society that enables all of us to thrive and make the most of our lives together.
Now that we have nearly come to the end of this part of this challenge, I hope you will
take time to savor what you have done and look forward to the positive vision of the future
you can create during the fourth and final part of this challenge.
Here are the tasks which are designed to help you better understand and foster
forgiveness for others and for yourself:
Second, there is a special video to watch with an extraordinary example of the power of
forgiveness where a mother is able to forgive the person who killed her son. When you
watch this, try to forgive yourself if you feel like you could never do something like that.
Then, just try to understand how she did it and what difference it made for her and the
person that she forgave.
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Third, there is a task that involves writing about a time when someone did something
that hurt you. This includes focusing on the thoughts and feelings you experienced and the
potential benefits you might experience in forgiving this person. Writing this way can help
you decide whether you want to try to practice forgiveness and break the ice in doing it.
Fourth, there is also a task that involves writing about a time you failed or let yourself
down which also includes focusing on the thoughts and feelings you experienced and what
you can do to be kind and compassionate in forgiving yourself. Many think it is harder to
forgive themselves than it is to forgive others and here is your chance to learn to do it.
Fifth, there are reflection questions about what surprised you the most in this third part
of the challenge about your relationship with others and what you would most like to
remember. These were included to enable you to better understand how your own
happiness and well-being may be rooted in your relationships and the larger community.

https://youtu.be/Ex5mrm2P8Pg
2. Special Video – “The power of forgiveness” with Steve Hartman

Watch the video and think about what made it possible for the mother to forgive the
person who killed her son.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2BITY-3Mp4
3. A Time When You Were Hurt and Benefits of Forgiveness

Write about a time when someone did something that hurt you. Include the thoughts and
feelings you experienced about it and the potential benefits to you in forgiving this person.
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Write about a time when you feel like you failed or let yourself down. Include the
thoughts and feelings you experienced about it, and what you can do to be kind and
compassionate in forgiving yourself.
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What surprised you the most in what you learned in this third part of the challenge?
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What happened in this third part of the challenge that you most want to remember? How
can you remember and make it more a part of your life in the future?
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Part 4 – Creating the

Best Possible Future
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What is Part 4?
Purpose: The purpose of this part is to
enable you to develop a plan for best using
what you have learned in this challenge to
create the best possible life you can imagine.
Topics: There are chapters about fostering
the optimism, hope, humor, appreciation,
gratitude, and sense of meaning and purpose
that will help you in making this happen.
Activities: The most important activities
focus on imagining your best possible life and
charting your course by creating a map with a
step-by-step plan that can enable you to
achieve it and make it a reality.
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Creating a Better Future

Set a goal so big that you can't achieve it
until you grow into the person who can.
― Zig Ziglar
Welcome to the fourth and final part of this positive psychology challenge!
This focus for this part is on putting what you have been learning and doing into a plan
for a better future. From the start, this challenge has been about using positive psychology
to increase your happiness and well-being and make the most of your life.
The first part was basic training to help you identify what would make you most happy,
learn about the ways that psychology can help you achieve it, and build a foundation in
mindfulness, resilience, and the wisdom and creativity you need to find your way.
The second part focused on discovering the best in yourself, identifying your strengths,
and learning about what would enable you to use them to achieve your goals. This included
learning about authenticity, perseverance, courage, self-efficacy, and self-control.
The third part of the challenge enabled you to improve your relationships and have a
positive impact on the larger community and world around you by learning about social
intelligence, kindness, love, the value of community, fairness, and forgiveness.
The activities and videos reflected this progression with the primary exercises focused on
seeing more of the good around you in the first part, using more of the best within yourself
in the second, and improving your relationships with others and the world around you
during the third.
The primary exercises for this last part will involve creating a vision of the best possible
life for yourself in the future and creating a plan for using what you have been learning and
doing in this challenge to make it happen.
In addition to this first lesson that will get your started in this process, the lessons for this
last part focus on the VIA strengths in the category of transcendence. These strengths
enable us to transcend or go beyond our previous way of life and make the most of our life
and live it to the fullest.
Here are the strengths we will cover to help you do this:
1. Optimism and Hope - the strengths that may help you the most in bringing about
a better future.
2. Humor – the strength that can enable you to smile or laugh in almost any
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situation or circumstance along the way..

3. Appreciation and Gratitude – strengths that can make so much of our lives precious
regardless of whatever challenges or stress we are experiencing.
4. Meaning and Purpose – strengths that enable us to focus on what is most important
and may do the most to make our lives worth living.
The final chapter will be a review and celebration of everything that you have learned and
done as a part of this challenge.
With this in mind, I’ll now turn to the main focus of the lesson for this chapter: the
creative process that will help you design a pathway to a better future. This process is called
the PATH process. PATH is an acronym that stands for Planning Alternative Tomorrows
with Hope and it is a planning process developed by Jack Pearpoint, John O’Brien, and
Marsha Forrest. The PATH process provides a series of steps that we can take to make
positive change happen.
There are eight steps in the PATH process and there will be a task for the first four
chapters of this final part that will involve completing part of this process. You will do two
of the eight steps in each of the first four chapters. In this chapter, I’ll give you an
introduction to the process and briefly walk you through the eight steps. In order to provide
additional information about the PATH process, we have included a special section in
Appendix K titled “Guidelines for the PATH Process” which also has links for videos that
will also help you understand the process.
So here we go. First, the PATH process uses a graphic approach that will help you
visualize the steps it will take to achieve the kind of future that you want most. The process
involves creating a map of these steps on a large sheet or sheets of poster board and writing
down what will help you reach your goals. Thus, the first thing we will ask you to do is to
get two pieces of white poster board that are each approximately 2 by 3 feet that you can
tape together to create one continuous poster board approximately 2 by 6 feet. If you don’t
have enough space, you can tape the two sheets of poster board together so they fold in half
for easier storage. You will also need to get a set of medium point colored Sharpies or other
colored writing utensils you can use to write on the poster board or paper.
It is also possible to create a visual representation of your PATH on paper that rolls up
or use computer software such as PowerPoint. Most people prefer to do it on a large poster
board because they can put it up where they can see it and it is stronger and will last longer
than paper that is much thinner. Several of my students have also talked about how they
were glad they didn’t use computer software because they like to be able to touch it and use
their hands to do the writing and any drawing that may be involved. By the way, you do not
have to be an artist or good at drawing to do this. I have seen some great PATH posters
with minimal drawing and mostly words or lines using different colors.
After you have these materials, you will be ready to begin the first of the eight steps of
the PATH process. The first step is called Touching the Dream and involves envisioning a
“north star” that represents what you want most in life and what would be your “best
possible life.” This “north star” will orient and guide you during the rest of the process and
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be the starting point for breaking your dream down into achievable goals. This is probably
the step where drawing something or having a simple visual image, symbol, or picture may
be most useful. Sometimes being able to visualize something you want in the future might
enable you to discover things that may be harder to find or articulate using words alone. For
example, if you want to be successful in a sport, you might draw or use a picture of a medal
or a trophy. If you are retired and would like to spend more time with your grandchildren,
you could use a picture of them or draw something that represents what they love to do.
The second step is called Sensing the Goal and involves identifying “positive and
possible” goals for the future and a timeframe for reaching these goals. If you had a dream
of increasing meaning in your life by helping troubled adolescents, for example, this step
might involve setting the more specific goal of taking a class about how to help adolescents.
This is also where something like a gold medal representing your dream might get translated
into a more specific goal you can work towards like placing at a specific tournament or
competition. For the dream of spending time with your grandchildren, you could write
down a goal of moving closer to them, giving them special gifts, or taking them on a trip
that you might both really enjoy.
While the first two steps are focused on the best possible future, the third step is called
Ground in the Now and involves identifying where you are now in relation to reaching your
goals. This may draw on what you learned about how mindfulness can enable us to change
by first accepting where we are. The fourth step is called Invite Enrollment and involves
identifying and inviting people who are in a good position to support and help you reach
your goals. The PATH process calls this group of people your “dream team” and this step
will draw on what you learned in the last part of this challenge about improving your
relationships with others.
The fifth step is called Building Strength and involves recognizing ways to build strengths
and acquire new skills and talents. This step will draw directly on much of what you learned
about identifying and using strengths in the second part of this challenge. The final three
steps involve making a plan to bridge the gap between now and achieving the vision you
showed and described in the first two steps. The goals identified in these steps should
follow the SMART acronym in that they are: (1) Specific, (2) Measurable, (3) Achievable, (4)
Relevant, and (5) Time-bound.
The sixth step is to Identify Bold Steps for achieving your longer-term goals in the next
several months, the seventh step is Organizing the Month’s Work by being specific about
what you will do in the next month, and the eighth step is Committing to the First Step
which means doing one thing now to get you started.
Because the PATH process can be a lot to take in when moving relatively quickly
through the eight steps like I am doing, I highly recommend also reading the Guidelines for
the PATH Process in Appendix K. Most important, there are links to three videos include
with the guidelines and under the last task for this chapter. These videos may be the best
way for you to see what a PATH poster can look like and what you may want to aim for.
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The tasks include getting started with the PATH process and created a vision of your
best possible life in the future.
Second, there is a special video about the reaction of a little girl to getting what it is that
she wants more than anything else. This is shown as an example of the joy and gratitude
that it possible for us to experience when we achieve goals that mean the most to us.
Third, to enable you to get started thinking more about your future, there is an activity
that was developed in positive psychology which has been shown to increase optimism,
hope, happiness, and the likelihood of reaching your goals. This activity involves writing
about what you may imagine as you best possible life. To do this, you will be asked to think
about your life in the future and imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly
could. You will be asked to answer questions about where you might be living, what work
you might be doing, who you might be with, and how you might be giving back to others.
Fourth, as noted above, you will need to find or purchase the material you will need for
your PATH poster you will be working on for the first four chapters of this final part of the
challenge. What generally works best is to get two pieces of white poster board that are
approximately 2 by 3 feet that you can tape together on the back to create one continuous
poster board that is approximately 2 by 6 feet. In addition, it may be best to have or get a
set of medium point colored Sharpies or other colored writing utensils that you can use to
write on the poster board.
Fifth, the final task involves completing the first two steps of the PATH process that are
called Touching the Dream and Sensing the Goal. These steps are described in the lesson
above and in the Guidelines for the PATH Process in Appendix K.
Sixth, there are reflection questions about the people you might like to invite to be a part
of your “dream team” to support you in the PATH process and which of your goals for the
future may be most important.

https://youtu.be/4DQaekZLyZs
2. Special Video – “Lily’s Disneyland Surprise”
Watch the video and think about this as an example of what it might be like for you
when you accomplish an important goal and make one of your dreams come true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOpOhlGiRTM&t=67s
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3. Writing about Your Best Possible Life

This is an exercise involves writing about the “best possible life” you can imagine for
yourself in the future. Begin by thinking about your life in the future and imagining that
everything has gone as well as it possibly could. You have worked hard and succeeded at
accomplishing your life goals and realized your dreams.
If you are younger, this may include things like getting married and having a family,
beginning the kind of career you most want, or moving to live somewhere you always
wanted to live. If you are older, this may involve making the most of your later years by
doing something you always wanted to do, contributing to a cause that means a lot to you,
or finding peace in growing old and focusing on the little things you can enjoy and are
grateful for. If you in the middle part of your life, the life you want most may be a
combination of these things or something entirely different. The main thing is that what you
write about is both (1) the best that you can imagine if you use what you have been learning
about in this challenge and (2) also something that is within the realm of possibility.
In writing about your best possible life, be as clear, specific, and detailed as possible. You
can use the following questions as a guide if they are relevant for you and your life situation:
a. Where would you be living?
b. What kind of people would you be with?
c. What kind of work would you be doing?
d. What would you be doing for recreation and fun?
e. How might you be giving back to other people?
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4. Getting Materials for the PATH Process

To begin the PATH process, you will need to get two pieces of white poster board that
are approximately 2 by 3 feet that you can tape together on the back to create one
continuous poster board that is approximately 2 by 6 feet. You will also need to get a set of
medium point colored Sharpies or other colored writing utensils you can use to write on the
poster board. You can find these at places like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby but may also be
able to find them as places liked Walmart or Target. If you don’t have a lot of space, it may
help to fold the two sheets of poster board that you tape together.
5. Starting the PATH Process

Using your poster board and colored writing utensils and following the directions in the
Guidelines for the PATH Process in Appendix K, complete the 1st and 2nd steps. The 1st
step called Touching the Dream involves envisioning a “north star” that represents what
you want most and would be your “best possible life.” The 2nd step called Sensing the Goal
involves identifying “positive and possible” future goals and a timeframe for reaching them.
Before you get started, be sure to watch the following videos to help you better
understand the process and what the finished produce might look like. They were produced
by North Star Facilitators, the Spectrum Society for Community Living, and our own
Center for Applied Positive Psychology with Tanya Kallan, John Freisinger, and Paul Smith:
https://northstarfacilitators.com/the-path-process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ecv_VN9KyI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlKACFFEUdc
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Optimism and Hope

Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage
of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
― Jonas Salk
In this chapter, you are going to learn about the strengths that may be the most
important for creating a better future: optimism and hope. In the last chapter, one of your
tasks was to write about your best possible life. This is one of the go-to activities developed
in positive psychology that people have found especially useful for increasing optimism and
hope.
You have also started the PATH process, which began with a focus on the future in the
first two steps. These involved touching your dream and sensing your most important long-
term goals. This kind of looking forward to a better future and beginning to see how it is
possible is what optimism and hope are all about.
While optimism and hope have been defined in several different ways, psychology has
tried to define them in specific ways to make it possible to study them. In psychology,
optimism is defined as generally expecting more good things than bad to happen in the
future. In addition, while hope has sometimes been associated with something that may be
false or unrealistic, in psychology it has been defined in a realistic and practical way that has
to do with being able to reach our future goals.
The person who wrote the first textbook about positive psychology spent most of his
career focusing on this kind of hope. His name is Rick Snyder and he defined hope in a way
that uses the words of a saying that is probably familiar to most of you: “Where there is a
will, there is a way!” In Snyder’s view of hope, there are two things that make a better future
possible. The first is the “will” to make it happen and the second is a “way” or several ways
to make it happen. So, hope is having both the will and the way to reach your goals for a
better future.
This “will” and this “way” draw on some things that you have already learned about. The
“will” to make it happen involves both the grit and the self-efficacy we covered during the
second part of the challenge. You may remember that grit is perseverance plus having a
purpose you are passionate about and that self-efficacy is the belief that you can do what it
takes to reach a goal or fulfill that purpose. The “way” or ways of hope draw on the wisdom
and creativity that you learned about at the end of the first part of this challenge. You may
remember that wisdom is the practical knowledge we need for everyday life and creativity
involves finding new ways to do something that is useful or beneficial for us.
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In order to make hope happen and achieve what we hope for, we need to have a goal or
purpose we want to achieve like what you envisioned in the best possible life activity and
did for the first two steps of the PATH process. Once you have a goal or purpose that you
are passionate about, you can work on increasing your will to create the pathways to it. In
addition to having that consistent goal, the other thing you can do is simply to persevere, to
just keep taking that next single step, which will also increase your self-efficacy.
Let’s say that a goal you are passionate about is to become a black belt in karate. The
single step that begins this long journey might be looking for a beginner’s class that you can
take. But let’s say that you aren’t able to find a karate class after a week of exercising your
perseverance in looking through the local newspaper. This is where the “way” part comes
into play and where exercising wisdom and creativity, along with a dose of self-efficacy, may
help. For example, in the wisdom that comes from your personal experience, you remember
that you have an old friend who took a karate classes a couple years ago.
You contact her and get the phone number of her old instructor who is currently not
teaching but who happens to know three other instructors you can contact. So you are on
your way to finding the class you need to start with. At this and every step of the way –
especially when you are facing the biggest challenges – like the first test for your first belt –
you may need to exercise and build two strengths we talked about. You may need to
increase your belief that you can do it – what we defined as self-efficacy - as well as the
discipline or self-control that it may take to practice. In Chapters 11 and 12 you learned
about several proven ways to increase each.
The problem that many people have in trying using optimism and hope to reach their
goals is that they often leave out that “way” part or what they need to do to get there! There
is a common view about positive thinking that equates it with the kind of magical thinking
that says if we only think about something it will suddenly appear in our driveway. One
reason people may like to think about it this way is that if it is true, they won’t have to do a
lot of work! It may also be that when we see someone else get something we know they
have been thinking about, we may assume they got it just by thinking about it and don’t
realize how much they may have actually done to work for it.
There was a study conducted by the psychologist Shelley Taylor that sheds light on this
problem. She randomly assigned college students who were going to take a big test to two
different groups. The first group was asked to imagine themselves getting back a big test
with an A on it and the second group was asked to imagine doing what they thought it
might take for them to get an A on the test. The second group not only did better on the
test and got more As, they also spent more time studying and the time that they spent
studying was strongly related to how well they did on the test.
During the first part of this challenge you were asked to write down three good things
that happened every day as one of the tasks for many of the chapters. While this may not
have always directly caused more good things to happen around you, just being aware and
looking for them probably made it more likely you would find some of them and eventually
do things to make some of them happen more often in the future. Similarly, thinking about
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getting an A on a test might not directly cause you to do better, but it may make it more
likely by increasing your motivation to study.
This is how it may be with writing about your best possible life and envisioning a better
future in first steps of the PATH process. This may increase your motivation and belief that
you may get there. But the way to really make Snyder’s kind of hope happen is to use that
motivation to begin to create the path you need to get there, and then of course begin to
walk it. That what the rest of this challenge is all about.
Here are tasks to enable you to increase and benefit more from optimism and hope:
Second, there is a special video about a young boy who does something that he always
wanted to do and his whole community celebrates with him. This an example of what is
possible when we continue to work towards our most important goals even when
sometimes they may seem out of reach.
Third, the next task is to complete the 3rd and 4th steps of the PATH process as
described the Appendix K, Guidelines for the PATH Process and videos that the appendix
provides links for. The 3rd step is called Ground in the Now and involves identifying where
you are now in relation to your long-term goals and the 4th step is called Invite Enrollment
and involves inviting those you would like to have on your “dream team” to encourage and
support you in working towards your goals and best possible life.
Fourth, this task is to do something to increase your pathways for “making hope
happen” for you. It involves going back through this workbook and making a list of the
lessons, exercises, videos, and questions that you think might most help you on your path to
your best possible life. This will help you make the best use of what you have learned and
done as a part of this challenge.
Fifth, there are reflection questions about what you can best use from what you have
learned in this challenge, or anywhere else in your life, to enable you to achieve the goals of
that best possible life. This will help you be more specific and go into more detail about
what you can actually do to use what you have learned to reach your goals.

https://youtu.be/Dd1bvK5xPck
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2. Special Video - “Wow: Autistic Waterboy scores Non-Stop 3-

pointers!”
After you watch the video, think about what it might be like for you to celebrate reaching
some of your most important goals with those who helped you achieve them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV1akgvFknk
3. PATH Process Steps 3 and 4

The task is to complete the 3rd and 4th steps of the PATH process as described in the
Guidelines for the PATH Process in Appendix K. The 3rd step is called Ground in the Now
and involves identifying where you are now in relation to your goals and where you most
want to be in the future. The 4th step is called Invite Enrollment and involves inviting those
people you identified in answering one of the questions from the last chapter to be a part of
your “dream team.” In order to fully understand these steps and what to aim for, be sure to
watch the videos that Appendix K provides the links for if you haven’t already.
Who are the people who you would most like to have on your “dream team” and how do
you think each can help, support, and encourage you on your PATH?
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4. Making Hope Happen

The task is to do something to increase the “ways” for you to “make hope happen.” This
involves reviewing the lessons, videos, exercises, and questions so far in this challenge and
listing those you think may be most helpful for achieving your best possible life.
If possible, it might be best to flip through each of the chapters, make notes as you go,
and then highlight or rank those you think are most important. You might be surprised how
much we can forget if we don’t go back and review and rehearse what we have learned.
After you have completed your review and have a list of things you most want to use in
achieving the kind of life you envision for yourself, write down the top 10 or so below along
with notes about why each may be important and how you might use them.
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Select 3-5 of the most important things that you have about in this challenge and write
about how you can use them to realize your best possible life.
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If possible, identify anything else that you have learned in your life that you can use to
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Humor
Humor can alter any situation and help us cope
at the very instant we are laughing.
― Allen Klein
Now we are going to talk about what makes us laugh. It may seem strange to have a
lesson about humor at all, even more during the final part of this challenge where you are
envisioning and creating a path to a best possible life. But that is part of the point about
humor and why we need it so much.
Humor is about recognizing the incongruities of life, the things that don’t seem to fit in
the world around us, in our friends and family members, and especially in ourselves. When
you think about the life you want for yourself in the future as you do for the “best possible
life” activity in Chapter 19, you might be struck by how far away it may seem from the life
you are living right now. Humor can help us make laugh and make light of how much of a
difference this can be and use it as a motivation for change rather than something to be
discouraged about.
During the first part of this challenge, we talked about the power of positive reappraisal,
which is our ability to think about things in a new way that brings out more of the best in
ourselves and the world around us. Humor can work for us in a similar way and at times can
be even more powerful.
There have been surveys asking people what qualities they think may be most important
in a marriage partner where the answer has been humor, rather than intelligence or good
looks. Even when you lose whatever good looks you had and get old enough to not be able
to remember the last time you had an intelligent thought, you can still laugh and we often
love those who make us laugh.
As with positive reappraisal, humor can shift our perspective in a way that can make us
laugh, smile, and even feel joy in some of the worst of circumstances.
So, what is humor? It has been defined in at least three different ways.
First, and this may be what some of us are thinking about when we say we don’t have
good sense of humor, it has been defined as the ability to make other people smile or laugh.
The thing is that for some of us, we do this without even trying – or by accident when we
are actually trying to be serious!
Second, humor has been defined as something close to the way I talked about it at the
beginning of this lesson – as the playful recognition, enjoyment, or creation of incongruities.
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This brings us back to what we may see in ourselves when, despite our highest aspirations,
we make some of the same silly mistakes again and again!
Third, and this is where it can become a super power, humor has been defined as a
cheerful view on adversity that allows us to see the lighter side of things and enables us to
sustain a good mood – even when stress happens! This may be why in the VIA
classification humor is listed under the category of transcendence. It may enable us to
transcend or rise above our stressful circumstances.
The other thing that is wonderful about humor is that there are so many different forms.
Like with our strengths and the things we love to do, it may be vital for us to discover what
kinds of humor are our personal favorites. There may be some forms of humor that don’t
appeal to us at all, while there may be others that once we are exposed to them, we can’t get
enough of them.
Here is a sample of different kinds. Think about which are your favorites.
The first one is a joke – seriously - which is short story that ends with a funny, climactic
twist… What did the Buddhist say to the vendor at the hot dog stand? Make me one with
everything.
Another verbal form of humor that can be a form of a joke is a riddle - which is question
that calls for a clever or unexpected answer… “What goes up but never goes down? Your
age.” There are probably some of us that don’t find that one very funny.
And then there is overstatement like when you say “I sure did great” on a test that you
barely passed, or understatement like saying that “Phoenix, Arizona can get a little warm in
the summer.”
One form of humor made famous on the Candid Camera television show is the practical
joke where you create a strange or unlikely situation for someone and then see how they
react. There is a famous Candid Camera scene called The Power of Conformity where
everyone on an elevator, except the unknowing target person, does strange things together
with the unknowing target following right along. You will see this as your special video for
this chapter because not only is it funny, it also shows the dangers of blind conformity.
Of course, there is also the kind of physical humor that the Three Stooges became
famous for as they slapped and poked at each other with the same familiar sounds as if they
were in playing the drums or in a dance. Then there is the witty banter that Abbot and
Costello made famous in their Who’s on First routine, where confusion reigns regarding the
name of the players on a baseball team.
The final kind of humor I want to mention is satire or parody which is used to make fun
of the shortcomings of those who may take themselves too seriously. While this can be a
form of hostile humor that can hurt it targets, it has also been effectively used to challenge
abusive people in power who may be difficult to challenge otherwise. It also may be a
unique and powerful tool to use with ourselves to keep us humble in accepting our personal
flaws and imperfections.
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The bottom line is that the power of humor is no joke, and that although it can
sometimes be used to harm, it may be one of the most powerful weapons we have to keep
us smiling and sane on the most stressful and challenging parts of our path.
Since the dawn of positive psychology, there has been increasing research on the effects
of humor showing that not only can it make us laugh, but that is also good for our health
and well-being. One, it can help us recover more quickly from surgery and illness. Two, it
can enable us to better deal with our mortality. Three, it can reduce some of the harmful
aspects of the stress response. Four, it has been shown to improve immune function.
Finally, there are things that even the most humorless among us can do to increase the
presence of humor and its benefits in our lives. The psychologist Paul McGhee has
developed what he calls the Seven Humor Habits program, which has been shown to
increase optimism, self-efficacy, and positive emotions while also decreasing anxiety,
depression, and stress. You can ‘google’ him and the name of the program for the details
about how to practice them, but here are the seven habits:
1. Surround yourself with humor.
2. Cultivate a playful attitude.
3. Laugh more often and more heartily.
4. Create your own verbal humor.
5. Look for humor in everyday life.
6. Take yourself lightly and laugh at yourself.
7. Find humor in the midst of stress.
So, when you are charting your course to your best possible life – humor might help you
laugh at all the ways you may fall short. You might also find yourself laughing when you are
surprised at how well you are doing and at all of the strange and unexpected things that are
bound to happen along the way.
Believe it or not, science has finally confirmed what many of us have suspected all along.
Humor can bring a smile to almost any situation and help us both have fun and make the
most of our lives. Seriously!
The following tasks are designed to help you continue to develop a plan for a better
future and understand how you can use humor to enable you to achieve it.
Second, the special video is that old Candid Camera TV show scene filmed on an elevator
about the power of conformity. Watch the video and reflect on where you have fallen into
conformity and what you can do to avoid it.
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Third, the task is to write about how you can use your top strengths and what you have
learned and done in this challenge to achieve your best possible life. This will enable you
identify and describe specific ways you can use what you have learned and help you
complete the 5th and 6th steps of the PATH process.
Fourth, the next task is to actually complete the 5rd and 6th steps of the PATH process as
described in the Appendix K Guidelines for the PATH process. The 5th step is called
Building Strength and involves recognizing ways to build your strengths and acquire new
skills and talents. The 6th step is called Identify Bold Steps and involves developing steps for
achieving your long-term goals.
Fifth, there are reflection questions about the kind of humor that you enjoy the most and
how you might use humor to help you achieve your goals and realize your best possible life.
Think about how you might use humor to deal with the stressful times and lows and to
celebrate you achievements and the highs.

https://youtu.be/XMB19WU8Wr4
2. Special Video – “Human Behaviour experiment Lift Antics”

Watch the video and reflect on where you have falling into conformity. Think about how
you be able to prevent that and think and act in ways that are more true to you and the path
that you want to take in your life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDLbbfT9_Q
Where have you fallen into the kind of conformity that you saw in the video? What can
you to avoid it and act in ways that are true to who you are?
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3. Using What You Learned to Realize Your Best Possible Life

Write about how you can use your top strengths and what you have learned and done in
this challenge to achieve your best possible life and the goals in your PATH. If you did last
chapter’s activity where you identify what you thought would help you the most from this
challenge and the rest of your life, then write about how you can use the most important of
those things. If you haven’t done that, then it may be best to review the lessons, videos, and
activities in this workbook now to make a list. Finally, it may help to go over the “340 Ways
to Use VIA Character Strengths” for ways you might use your strengths to reach your goals.
http://tayyabrashid.com/pdf/via_strengths.pdf
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4. PATH Process Steps 5 and 6

This task is to complete the 5th and 6th steps of the PATH process as described in the
Guidelines for the PATH Process in Appendix K. The 5th step is called Building Strength
and involves recognizing ways to build strengths and acquire new skills and talents. The 6th
step is called Identify Bold Steps and involves developing a plan for achieving the long-term
goals you listed in 2nd step. In order to fully understand these steps and what to aim for, be
sure to watch the videos that Appendix K provides links for if you haven’t already.
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How can you use humor to help achieve your goals and realize your best possible life?
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Appreciation and Gratitude

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought;
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
― G.K. Chesterton
We are coming down the home stretch in this challenge. In the last chapter, we covered
an often underrated strength that can bring a laugh or smile to almost any situation: humor.
In this chapter, we are going to talk about two other underrated strengths that can
increase the value of almost anything in our lives – appreciation or what the VIA
classification calls the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, and, simply put, Gratitude.
While thinking about that best possible life that we are creating a path toward in the future,
it is good to be able to know about and exercise these two strengths that can make every
day of our lives precious.
We will begin with the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence (or just “appreciation” as I
often refer to it). To begin with, it may help to know that there are at least three main
focuses for it.
The first focus is physical beauty, which we may most often see with our eyes. For me, it
is the way the clouds paint the skies where I live in New Mexico, which for good reason is
called the “Land of Enchantment.” There may be only one Mona Lisa, but almost every
day, especially around sunrise and sunset, the clouds glide and dance in an ever-changing
pattern that even Leonardo Da Vinci couldn’t completely capture. Physical beauty is
something we may most associate with our richly endowed visual sense but it can be also be
accessed through our other senses, as in the sound of music, that song we never tire of; the
smells we love that help us feel peaceful and grounded; the taste of a gourmet meal; or the
kind and compassionate touch of a loved one when we are having a rough day.
The second focus for appreciation is the excellence we see in exceptional displays of
human skill or talent. The way that Michael Jordan played basketball transcended the sport
and got people who never watched the game to tune in just to watch him. This kind of
excellence can be one of the rewards for doing what you love, using your strengths, and
having the experience of mastering something after months and years of practice. Yes, you
appreciate the excellence of a Michael Jordan, who may have done one thing better than
anyone else. But you can also appreciate excellence in overcoming obstacles that you saw in
the boy with autism who sunk six three pointers in a row, or in Nick Vujicic, who with no
arms and legs shows us how he has learned to do many things that we take for granted.
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But it is the third focus of appreciation that may provide the best hope for humanity,
especially when we view it in light of what we are learning about the biology of kindness
and compassion. The third focus is acts of virtue, moral beauty, and goodness. When you
witness the loving way that Mother Teresa embraced that dying person on the streets of
Calcutta, the mirror neurons firing in our brains let us know what it may feel like to be a
part of that embrace, the oxytocin released in our bodies makes us feel connected with
everyone around us, and the warm feeling of elevation that wells up in our chest motivates
us to live and act with similar kindness and compassion.
Thus, there are at least three different ways that we can focus our Appreciation of Beauty
and Excellence – on physical beauty, on human excellence in others and ourselves, and on
acts of love, kindness, and compassion that can awaken and bring the better angels within
us to life.
This is the power of appreciation. You drive a new car off the lot and it quickly
depreciates by thousands of dollars that you will never get back. Then you see or just think
about something beautiful or the love that someone expressed to you and that depreciating
car, downturn in the stock market, or even that cancer diagnosis you recently got no longer
bother you quite so much.
Moreover, gratitude may just be a different facet of appreciation where both stem from
the same wondrous capacity we have to see, savor, and be moved by the things around us.
The word gratitude is derived from the same root word as “grace” – as in that which can be
amazing – and which refers to something that is a free gift.
Gratitude is a natural response to receiving a gift and it motivates us to give back in some
way. There are times when there is a person that we can thank for a gift we receive, like you
did when you write a gratitude letter. But there are other times when we can’t attribute what
we are grateful for to another human being. Maybe that’s why some of us can’t help but
think that there might be something sacred and divine behind it all.
But even if we can’t always identify the source of what we are grateful for, we can use
our motivation to give back to increase courage and grit we need to do some of the hard
things we sometimes have to do. Gratitude can enable us to extend our empathy and
compassion to those who are more difficult to love – or help us face our fears and
overcome the obstacles that get in the way of our goals and dreams.
While I gave you ways to increase your Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence by
knowing where to look, I want to leave you with some of the specific ways we have found
that may help us the most in fostering gratitude.
First, research has shown that there are benefits in simply stopping to count our
blessings and that, for most people, it doesn’t have to be every day. We may want to start by
creating a working list of all the different things we are grateful for; but returning once a
week to review, remind ourselves, and add to the list may go a long way.
Second, the thing we that asked you to do during the first part of this challenge - to look
for three good things every day - may be good to do more often. We can use it whenever
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we sense that negativity bias beginning to creep back into our awareness and make it harder
to see and appreciate the little things that can bring us so much joy.
Third, there is the expression of gratitude that was a part of the gratitude letter you wrote
and all of the other ways that we can intentionally say the words that can mean so much to
other people. You can continue this in so many ways and use the new vocabulary of the
VIA strengths you have learned and strength spotting to better see what you can express to
others in gratitude.
There are countless other small and simple ways we can remind ourselves of the
goodness, beauty, kindness, and love that can help get us out of bed on our darkest of days.
You can start a gratitude journal that you review when you feel the storm clouds rolling in.
You can write the blessings you have counted or good things you have noticed on Post-Its
or enter them as reminders on one of the many smart phone apps that now make this
possible. You can make it a part of your routine to send an email or give a note of
appreciation to someone at the beginning or end of every week or every day.
Gratitude is like the kindness that we talked about in relation to the movie Amelie. It is
one of the most powerful ways to change our lives and bring our happiness to a new level –
and once we begin to see its power and experience its benefits – we won’t want to stop
practicing it.
Here are the tasks that will continue to help you plan for a better future, deal with stress
and obstacles along the way, and foster appreciation and gratitude:
Second, there is a special video to watch from the movie the Shawshank Redemption
that shows how it is possible to appreciate beauty in almost any circumstance and that doing
so can make all the difference.
Third, the most important task for this chapter is to complete the final two steps of the
PATH process using the guidelines in Appendix K. This includes step 7, Organizing the
Month’s Work, by being specific about how you’ll make progress in the next month, and
step 8, Committing to the First Step, which involves doing something now to get started.
Fourth, this task involves giving yourself a kind of psychological vaccination with
something called Stress Inoculation Training developed by psychologist Donald
Meichenbaum. Here, it will include making a list of the obstacles you may face in the next
month and writing about how you think you might best deal with them.
Fifth, there are reflection questions about how to make appreciation and gratitude more
a part of your life and about taking the first step you set for yourself in the PATH process.
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https://youtu.be/Ce0RdjOEbjI
2. Special Video – “The Shawshank Redemption Opera Scene”

Watch the video and think about how you could use the Appreciation Beauty and
Excellence to help get through some of the stressful events you may face in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzuM2XTnpSA
3. Finishing the PATH Process

Complete the 7th and 8th steps and final step of the PATH process as described in the
Guidelines for the PATH Process in Appendix K. The 7th step is called Organizing the
Month’s Work and involves being specific about what you will do to make progress in
walking your path in the next month. The 8th step is called Committing to the First Step and
involves one thing you can do to get started with the PATH you have envisioned for
yourself. In order to fully understand these steps and what to aim for, be sure to watch the
videos that Appendix K provides the links for if you haven’t already.
4. Stress Inoculation Training for Potential Obstacles

This task involves practicing a kind of psychological vaccination developed by
psychologist Donald Meichenbaum called Stress Inoculation Training.
First, make a list of 3-5 obstacles or kinds of stress that you think may get in the way of
your being successful in achieving your goals and realize the best possible life that you are
aiming for in the PATH process.
Second, write about how you might best do something to cope with each of the obstacles
or stressors that you identify. If it helps, go back and review any lessons in the workbook
that may particularly help you come with ideas such as the chapters on mindfulness,
resilience, perseverance, and self-efficacy.
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What can you do to make appreciation or gratitude more a part of your life? How could
you make them a part of your routine in way that might enable them to become a habit in
time? You might want to review the suggestions near the end of this chapter for different
ways to practice gratitude.
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What is the first step you identified to take in beginning the PATH process? Where and
when can you take it?
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Meaning and Purpose

He who has a “why” to live for can bear almost any “how.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Welcome to our second to last chapter! I hope that working through the PATH process
in creating your poster has been a valuable experience for you. This process can be a
wonderful way to chart your course to a better future and apply what you have learned in
this challenge. It may good to know that you can shift and change and create another
PATH poster as you gain more perspective on your life, different things happen in your life,
or as you meet new challenges or see new opportunities.
The main thing is that the PATH process can give you permission to dream, identify
goals and ways to accomplish them, and use what you have learned to make it happen. One
very important thing we want to make sure you take time to do is to follow through in
inviting and enrolling people on your “dream team” to support, encourage, and help you
make progress. Even though you may hesitate to ask, giving someone else the chance to
help you make the most of your life can bring great meaning to theirs.
All of which brings us to today’s topic, Meaning and Purpose, which is the last lesson
before our review and celebration in the final chapter of this challenge. Meaning and
Purpose is the only thing that is both included as a strength in the VIA classification and
also included as one of the elements of PERMA. So, it can be both a strength that is a
means to an end and also an end that we seek for its own sake. In fact, you might even
think about meaning and purpose as the very essence of a life worth living.
I’ve talked about the role that Viktor Frankl played in bringing meaning and purpose to
the forefront of positive psychology. There is an interesting fact about his well-known book
titled Man’s Search for Meaning. This is where he writes about how a sense of meaning and
purpose enabled him survive four concentration camps in Nazi Germany and about his
approach to helping people increase the meaning in their lives.
In the early years of positive psychology, there was a poll about what was the best
positive psychology book. Even though Man’s Search for Meaning was written a half a century
before positive psychology was begun by Martin Seligman, it was voted the best book - and
for good reason. There are more than a few memorable things that Frankl has to say that
demonstrates the insights and wisdom you can find in that book. One is how he expands on
a famous quote by Friedrich Nietzsche where he says that, “those who have a ‘why’ to live,
can bear almost any ‘how’.”
In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl writes about one of the biggest things that gave him a
“why” to bear how to make it through the horrors he experienced in those concentration
camps. He wrote about how having to trudge through the mud on the many cold and rainy
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days to do the meaningless work led to exhaustion and death for many of his fellow
prisoners. He wrote about what gave him the meaning to endure so many of the horrible
days when those around his lost the will to live.
He would imagine and hold in his mind one of the greatest gifts that he believed he had
received and made his life worth living - the love of his wife. Even though he didn’t know if
she was even still alive, it was the thought there could be a love like that which kept him
alive. It preserved his will to live and gave him a reason to go on and write a book about the
power of meaning and purpose so you and I could read about it today.
The other big thing that Frankl has to say lies that the heart of this challenge and brings
us back to the poet Mary Oliver’s big question: “What is it you plan to do with
your one wild and precious life?” That is one famous question in the form of a quote and
here is Frankl’s famous answer in the same form. He said this in three simple lines:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
The purpose of this challenge is to help you see that space, the power of the choice can
make and, if you are willing to make it, help you develop a vision and plan for what to do
with the opportunity for growth and freedom you have in your one wild and precious life.
Before finishing this chapter, there are three things I want to say about how meaning and
purpose can help us answer this question. First, the kind of meaning and purpose we are
talking about today is not the same as the pleasure that so many associate with happiness.
Pleasure and positive emotions can be wonderful gifts of life that are worth appreciating
and being grateful for as we discussed in the last chapter.
But if pleasure was the only thing that was important to Frankl, he may not have
survived to go on to write that book. If it were all that we sought, then there might be many
things that bring meaning to our lives that we might never do - like having kids, going for
college, being a caregiver, serving our country, taking a stand for what we believe in, or
having many of the goals and dreams that we express when we write about our best
possible life or complete a PATH poster.
Meaning is more than just pleasure and it enables us not only to survive but to thrive. It
gives us something to live for even when pleasure can be so hard to find – like during a
pandemic, when we have chronic pain or a chronic illness, when our relationship ends,
when we lose a loved one, or when we don’t get that promotion. When pleasure is waning
like it may at times during our periods of greatest stress; it is the meaning we get from those
special people, experiences, places, and projects in our lives that make all the difference, get
us through, and make it all worth it.
Second, although the kind of meaning and purpose we are talking about can be found in
spirituality and organized religion, it is not necessarily the same thing and can also be found
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in other ways. The word religion has come to be associated with groups of people who
organize their lives around a traditional set of beliefs and practices. The word spirituality has
come to take on a different, broader meaning sometimes associated with God or a higher
power – but increasingly more often with nature, the universe, or a higher cause or purpose.
The kind of meaning and purpose we are talking about here may or may not involve
organized religion and related forms of spirituality, but it does involve is something that
makes us want to be alive, get up in the morning, and follow the advice that Robin William
tells his class in the Dead Poet Society: “carpe diem,” which is Latin for “seize the day!”
Third, like the love Victor Frankl experiences from his wife, to have that sense of
meaning and purpose – or even to be on the quest to find it, can enable us to focus our
lives in a world where we are pulled in so many directions, and put us on a path to making
the most of our lives. There are several ways that we have tried to enable you to do this in
this challenge. We have tried to encourage you to find what you love to do, what your
strengths are, who and what you are grateful for, what kinds of causes you want to be
involved with and give back to, and what you most want your life to be like in the future.
Viktor Frankl has given us the gift of being able to see our lives not only as the pursuit of
pleasure, but of the things that can inspire and motivate us through the hardest of times,
bring lasting gratification and reward - not only to survive but also to thrive and flourish -
and to truly make our lives worth living!
The tasks are designed to enable you to better understanding and foster meaning and
purpose in your life and think about how you can share the benefits of what you have
learned in this challenge with others:
Second, there is a special video about Viktor Frankl titled Man’s Search for Meaning by
Viktor Frankl/Core Message” about the importance of meaning in life. Watching this and
reflecting on it can be a good way to think about how meaning might be a part of the future
you may want to work towards.
Third, there is a task that involves writing about the most meaningful things that you
learned or did as part of this challenge and how they might change your life for the better.
Fourth, there are reflection questions about how your life might be different if you
focused more time and energy on what brings meaning and purpose to your life. Identifying
and focusing on the benefits of a more meaningful life will help motivate you to achieve it.
Fifth, there is a task about “paying it forward” that involves writing about how you can
pass what you have learned about and done in the challenge on to others and make
expressing gratitude and kindness a bigger part of your life.
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https://youtu.be/egdvtk99GyE
2. Special Video – “Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor

Frankl/Core Message”
Watch the video and think about what may bring you more meaning in the future and
how meaning might be more a part of the best possible life and future you might have
envisioned in the PATH process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYBg9_069gg
What you think are the most meaningful things that you learned as a part of this
challenge?
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How do you think you might use them to change your life for the better?
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4. The Benefits of a Meaningful Life

How might your life be different if you focused more time and energy on what can bring
meaning and purpose to your life? What would you be focusing on and doing?
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5. Paying It Forward
What you could do to pay what you have learned and done in this workbook forward
and pass it on to other people and causes you care about?
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Who would you most like to share something you learned or one of the activities you
benefited from? What would you like share and how could you do it?
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How could you make expressing gratitude and kindness to others an increasing and more
regular and routine part of your life?
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Review and Celebration

Two roads diverged in a wood and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
― Robert Frost
Welcome to our final chapter! You are almost there. I hope you feel good for having
made it this far. Of course, the challenge to make the most of your life never really ends.
Just as when you began this challenge you were answering a call to adventure into unknown
territory, so you will experience this call in new ways as you continue your journey after you
have completed this workbook.
What I would like to do in this last chapter is to help you reflect on what you have
learned so you can savor it and begin to imagine how you can carry it with you as you
continue on the path you may have mapped out for yourself in the PATH process.
The first big thing we wanted to do in the challenge was to give you a way to think about
and identify what may really make you happy and enable you to make the most of your life.
We started by introducing positive psychology as the science of happiness and what makes
life worth living. We gave you an idea of all we are learning about what makes most people
happy so you would have a good background for thinking about and identifying what may
make you most happy so you can begin to make it more a part of your life.
We talked about how Martin Seligman, who as the president of the American
Psychological Association, started the initiative that became positive psychology back in
1998. Positive psychology was founded to increase the focus on what makes us happy,
enables us to become our best, and live our lives to the fullest.
We learned about how psychology had fallen into our very human negativity bias where
we pay so much attention to the potential threats in our lives – that we may miss many of
the good things that can help us deal with these threats. Seligman developed that PERMA
theory we keep going back to that says there may be at least five different elements that
make up human happiness and well-being:
1. Positive emotions – such as joy, interest, love, and contentment.
2. Engagement - which includes the experience of flow.
3. Relationships - where we experience so much of our happiness.
4. Meaning - which may be the essence of a life worth living
5. Accomplishment - which is our desire to master and do things well for its own sake.
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One of the tasks you will have for this chapter is to take the same well-being survey we
suggested for the first chapter of the challenge so you can compare your scores on the
elements of PERMA and see how they may have changed. But remember that PERMA is a
general theory that may miss some of the specific things that may make you as a unique
person most happy. So, if there is something else you envisioned for your path or best
possible life, please feel free to make it a focus for you and think about how it may have
changed during your time working through this challenge.
Thus, the first big thing we tried to do was to enable you think about and see more
clearly what would might make you happy, what you want the most, and what might be
your best possible life. The second thing that we spent most of our time on was offering
you the tools that modern science, psychology, and especially positive psychology have
discovered and have made available so we can better accomplish our goals and realize our
best possible life.
As part of your basic training during the first part of this challenge, we talked about
building blocks of change that can accompany you through your journey, how you can
practice mindfulness to be more present to your life, how to increase resilience and stress-
related growth to bounce back and learn from stress, and what you can do to foster your
inherent capacity for wisdom and creativity.
As part of helping you better see, embrace, and use the best in yourself to make the most
of your life, during the second part of the challenge we gave new ways to identify and use
your strengths. We also focused on how you can build and use the strengths that may be
most important in enabling you to move forward in your journey – including authenticity,
perseverance, courage, self-efficacy, and self-control.
As part of your living and being a part of a social network and larger community, during
the third part we focused on how you can improve your relationships with others and find
better ways to have a positive impact on the community and world around you. Specifically,
we examined social intelligence and how you can build and use love, kindness, fairness,
justice, and forgiveness to a create community that gives us the chance to thrive together.
In this fourth and final part of the challenge, you have had the opportunity to put it all
together in writing about your best possible life and using the PATH process to plan and
map out your way forward after this challenge. In this part, we focused on strengths like
optimism and hope, humor, appreciation and gratitude, and meaning and purpose - which
make it possible for us to rise above some of the limitations of the lives we have known and
begin to see and realize more of the kind of life we want most
We hope that you have had the opportunity to watch some of the videos that we created
especially for this challenge and that you will feel free to return to them as often as you like
to refresh yourself in what you have been learning (a complete listing of the Author Videos
is in Appendix C). We also hope that you will remember and revisit the other
supplementary videos that really spoke to you. Maybe it was the symphony coming together
to play the Ode to Joy in a public square, Heather Dorniden getting up to win that race,
Maya Angelou talking about how love liberates, the little six year old girl giving wise advice
to her mother, the boy with autism making those six 3 pointers in a row, appreciating the
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beauty of the singing in The Shawshank Redemption, or Lily when she found out that she was
going to Disneyland. (A complete list of special videos can be found in Appendix D.)
Most of all, we hope that you will find ways to continue to incorporate and benefit from
the exercises that helped you the most. Whether it is finding ways to continue to see, create,
and savor the good things around you; use your strengths in new ways and experience the
wind at our back; to kindness and gratitude to those around you; or finding more meaning
in becoming a part of a cause or something greater than yourself that expands the reach of
love, kindness, and compassion to others. Whatever it may have been, we hope that you will
find ways to further pursue and continue to build on the lessons, activities, and videos that
spoke to you and made the most difference for you.
Finally, I hope you will take the time to first congratulate yourself, savor, and celebrate
the good work you have done; give yourself any time you may need to rest, recover, and
rejuvenate; and to then to follow through in moving forward in your path toward making
the most of your one wild and precious life!
These are the tasks that can help you to review and celebrate what you have learned in
this challenge and how it may have affected your happiness and well-being.
Second, there is a special video about gratitude by Louis Schwartzberg, who is a well-
known cinematographer who has focused on capturing beauty. This video is about how we
can use gratitude to make every day a good day.
Third, there are reflection questions about the most important things that you learned
and about what you can do to continue to practice and benefit from what you have learned.
Fourth, there is a task that involves identifying what you can do to celebrate and reward
yourself for having completed this challenge - and then doing it!
Finally, there is an opportunity to take the well-being survey that you took in the first
chapter of this challenge. Completing and scoring this will enable you to compare your
scores to see what may have changed for you. You can also feel free to make copies of the
survey so that you can use it whenever you want in monitoring your progress in the future.
Most important, on behalf everyone who contributed to making this challenge and
workbook possible, I wanted to thank you for taking part and being open to the lessons and
activities that have meant so much to us and our students and colleagues. It has been a great
pleasure and joy to be with you in this positive psychology challenge.
We wish you the best in finding whatever happiness you seek, in realizing a life that for
you is truly worth living, and in continuing on your path of making the most of your life and
living it the fullest!
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https://youtu.be/eOC_GZ5KcGo
2. Special Video - “Gratitude | Louie Schwartzberg”

Watch the video and think about how you can better exercise gratitude to make every
one of your days a good day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ
What are the most important things that you learned in this challenge?
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How can you continue to practice and benefit from these things?
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4. Celebrate Completing the Challenge!

Write about what you can do to celebrate and reward yourself for having completed this
challenge. Then take the time to do it in the next week or two!
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5. Complete the Well-Being Survey

Complete and score the survey below which is the same one you completed during the
first chapter of the challenge so you can compare your scores. (There is an additional copy
of this survey in Appendix E).
see what the scores mean in the table below and use this challenge to improve them.
your goals?
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
worthwhile?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
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Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always


Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

_____Engagement (3, 10, 17)
_____Meaning (1, 8, 14)
Level of Ranges for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Ranges for Negative

Very high 27-30 0-3
High 24-26 4-9
Average 20-23 10-15
Low 15-19 16-19
Very low 0-14 20-30
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Appendix A: Additional Readings

Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). Practicing positive psychology coaching: Assessment, activities, and strategies
for success. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love,
parent, and lead. New York: Gotham Books.
Burns, D. (2008). Feeling good: The new mood therapy. New York: Harper.
Campbell, J. (1949). The hero with a thousand faces. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Campbell, J. (2004). Pathways to bliss: Mythology and personal transformation. Novato, CA: New
World Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper
Perennial.
Emmons, R.A. (2013). Gratitude works: A 21-day program for creating emotional prosperity. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Enright, R.D. (2001). Forgiveness is a choice: A step-by-step process for resolving anger and restoring
hope. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Frankl, V. E. (1963). Man's search for meaning. New York: Pocket Books.
Froh, J.J., & Parks, A.C. (2013). Activities for teaching positive psychology: A guide for instructors.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Haidt, J. (2006). The happiness hypothesis: Finding modern truth in ancient wisdom. New York:
Basic Books.
Hanson, R. (2013). Hardwiring happiness: The new brain science of contentment, calm, and confidence.
New York: Harmony Books.
Joseph, S. (Ed.). (2015). Positive psychology in practice: Promoting human flourishing in work, health,
education, and everyday life. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are. New York: Hyperion.
Keltner, D. (2010). The compassionate instinct. In D. Keltner, J. Marsh & J.A. Smith. The
compassionate instinct (pp. 8-15). New York: W.W. Norton.
Lopez, S.J., & Snyder, C.R. (Eds.). (2009). Oxford handbook of positive psychology (2nd Ed.).
New York: Oxford University Press.
Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). The how of happiness: A new approach to getting the life you want. New
York: Penguin Books.
Miller, W.R., & C'de Baca, J. (2001). Quantum change: When epiphanies and sudden insights
transform ordinary lives. New York: Guilford Press.
Mumford, G. (2015). The mindful athlete: Secrets to pure performance. Berkeley, CA: Parallax
Press.
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Neff, K. (2011). Self-compassion: The proven power of being kind to yourself. New York:
HarperCollins.
Niemiec, R.M. (2014). Mindfulness and character strengths: A practical guide to flourishing. Boston,
MA: Hogrefe Publishing.
Niemiec, R.M. (2014). Positive psychology at the movies: Using films to build character strengths and
well-being (2nd Ed.). Boston, MA: Hogrefe Publishing.
Niemiec, R.M. (2018). Character strengths interventions: A field guide for practitioners. Boston,
MA: Hogrefe.
O'Hanlon, B., & Bertolino, B. (2012). The therapist's notebook on positive psychology: Activities,
exercises, and handouts. New York: Routledge.
Pearpoint, J., O'Brien, J., & Forest, M. (2011). PATH: A workbook for planning positive possible
futures. Toronto, CA: Inclusion Press.
Pennebaker, J.W., & Smyth, J.M. (2016). Opening up by writing it down: How expressive writing
improves health and eases emotional pain (3rd Ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook of
classification. New York: Oxford University Press.
Polly, S. & Britton, K. (Eds.). (2015). Character strengths matter: How to live a full life. Positive
Post, S., & Neimark, J. (2007). Why good things happen to good people. New York: Broadway
Books.
Proctor, C., & Eades, J.F. (2016). Strengths gym: Build and exercise your strengths. Channel
Islands, GYI 6HL: Positive Psychology Research Centre.
Rashid, T., & Seligman, M. (2018). Positive psychotherapy: Clinical manual. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Rashid, T., & Seligman, M. (2019). Positive psychotherapy: Workbook. New York: Oxford
Rogers, C.R. (1995). On becoming a person (2nd Ed.). New York: Mariner Books.
Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your
potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: Free Press.
Seligman, M.E.P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New
York: Free Press.
Smith, B.W. (2018). Positive psychology for the hero’s journey: Discovering true and lasting
happiness. Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing.
Snyder, C.R. (1994). The psychology of hope: You can get there from here. New York: Free Press.
Snyder, C.R., Lopez, S.J., & Pedrotti, J. T. (2015). Positive psychology: The Scientific and
practical explorations of human strengths, 3nd edition. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.
Worthington, E.L. (2001). Five steps to forgiveness: The art and science of forgiving. New York:
Crown Publishing.
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Appendix B: Positive Psychology Activities

Here is a list of the main positive psychology activities for each chapter of the challenge.
The focus of is on increasing seeing and creating more good things in Part 1, identifying and
using your top strengths in Part 2, expressing gratitude, kindness, and contributing to a
cause in Part 3, and creating a vision and road map to your best possible life in Part 4.
Part 1: Basic Training for Your Best Life

Chapter Primary Exercise Secondary Exercise
1 Identify good things during the Complete and score a well-being
day survey
2 Identify and remind yourself of Answer questions about what makes
good things you happy
3 Identify and look forward to good Identify and do your new pleasant
things things to try from a list
4 Identify and appreciate good Do a guided mindful breathing
things meditation
5 Identify and plan to create more Write about when you were and would
good things like to be resilient
6 Identify and plan to continue to Complete the Wheel of Life exercise
find and create good things to see how balanced your life is
Part 2: Bringing Out the Best in Yourself

7 Take the VIA Survey to identify Practice spotting the strengths of
your strengths and give examples other people
8 Use two of your top strengths in a Plan new ways to use each of your
new way top strengths
9 Use one of your top strengths to Identify how you can use your top
experience flow strengths to be happy
10 Use a top strength in a new way to Write about a time when you showed
benefit someone else courage
11 Use a top strength in a new way to Develop a plan for increasing self-
reach a goal efficacy where you need it
12 Identify things you'd like to savor Develop a plan for increasing self-
and try it control where you need it
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Part 3: Bringing Out the Best around You

13 Reflect about a relationship and Make of list of who you are grateful to
do something to improve it and why
14 Write and share gratitude letter Take the Languages of Love survey
and think about how it can help
15 Do a new kind act for someone Identify and plan acts of kinds for
you know friends and strangers
16 Do a new kind act for a stranger Identify groups appreciate and a cause
you'd like to contribute to
17 Do something to support a cause Identify ways to express love and
that is important to you kindness to yourself and try one
18 Write about a time you were hurt Develop a plan for forgiving yourself
and the benefits of forgiveness when you make a mistake
Part 4: Creating the Best Possible Future

19 Begin the PATH process and do Write about your best possible life in
steps 1 and 2 the future
20 Do steps 3 and 4 of the PATH Identify things you have learned to
process help achieve your best possible life
21 Do steps 5 and 6 of the PATH Create a plan to use what you learned
process for your best possible life
22 Do steps 7 and 8 of the PATH Prepare for coping with future stress
process and obstacles
23 Develop a plan to “pay forward” Write about the benefits of a more
what you have learned meaningful life
24 Celebrate what you've done in the Complete the well-being survey a
challenge second time and compare your scores
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Appendix C: Links to Author Videos

Chapter 1: A Call to Adventure https://youtu.be/rwYpX8ua8vs
Chapter 2: What Do You Want Most? https://youtu.be/ccM094t4Cas
Chapter 3: How Can You Make It Happen? https://youtu.be/8ZDDcz5D5Vo
Chapter 4: Mindfulness and Acceptance https://youtu.be/S_dAoCZe-W4
Chapter 5: Resilience and Stress-Related Growth https://youtu.be/2dndl9JI51E
Chapter 6: Wisdom and Creativity https://youtu.be/BYyAVCBnEqE
Chapter 7: Discovering Your Best https://youtu.be/PCxzb3G_eiE
Chapter 8: Authenticity https://youtu.be/iTvmXXRKJLY
Chapter 9: Perseverance https://youtu.be/v_UuF1g1jP8
Chapter 10: Courage https://youtu.be/2gOSNDKB3CM
Chapter 11: Self-Efficacy https://youtu.be/zHlEEC_kwgU
Chapter 12: Self-Control https://youtu.be/t2TtNgrGYbY
Chapter 13: Social Intelligence https://youtu.be/PxI6jFYcGA4
Chapter 14: Love https://youtu.be/D7igjMBjqSk
Chapter 15: Kindness https://youtu.be/P7lnMXdEbNQ
Chapter 16: Community Positive Psychology https://youtu.be/7nDAjP5Jf2g
Chapter 17: Fairness and Justice https://youtu.be/YO4QaE4Dxmk
Chapter 18: Forgiveness https://youtu.be/Ex5mrm2P8Pg
Chapter 19: The PATH Process https://youtu.be/4DQaekZLyZs
Chapter 20: Optimism and Hope https://youtu.be/Dd1bvK5xPck
Chapter 21: Humor https://youtu.be/XMB19WU8Wr4
Chapter 22: Appreciation and Gratitude https://youtu.be/Ce0RdjOEbjI
Chapter 23: Meaning and Purpose https://youtu.be/egdvtk99GyE
Chapter 24: Review and Celebration https://youtu.be/eOC_GZ5KcGo
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Appendix D: Links to Special Videos

Chapter 1: A Call to Adventure
“What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhk4N9A0oCA&t=21s
Chapter 2: What Do You Want Most?
“Alan Watts – What Do You Desire?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCUFs2qJ1bs
Chapter 3: How Can You Make It Happen?
“Shawn Achor - The Happiness Advantage”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXy__kBVq1M
Chapter 4: Mindfulness and Acceptance
“Flashmob – Ode an die Freude (Ode to Joy)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo
Chapter 5: Resilience and Stress-Related Growth
“Heather Dorniden’s Inspiring 600 meter race"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70UF82nysIU
Chapter 6: Wisdom and Creativity
“The best gift I ever survived | Stacey Kramer”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgTnmWZX39w
Chapter 7: Discovering Your Best
“Good Will Hunting – Park scene subtitled”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GY-iWnriGg
Chapter 8: Authenticity
“The Power of Vulnerability |Brene Brown”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o
Chapter 9: Perseverance
“Grit: the power of passion and perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8
Chapter 10: Courage
“Adorable Girl Tells her Divorced Parents to be Friends”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCNUlEfD_dg
Chapter 11: Self-Efficacy
“The Most Inspirational Video You Will Ever See - Nick Vujicic’s Story”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6HnFuzSJdQ
Chapter 12: Self-Control
“Marshmallow Test – (funny)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc4EF3ijVJ8
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Chapter 13: Social Intelligence

“Active Constructive Responding”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRORihbXMnA
Chapter 14: Love
“Dr. Maya Angelou - Love Liberates”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbecKv2xR14&t=89s
Chapter 15: Kindness
“The power of kindness: Johann Berlin”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG-SmD5X5Kk
Chapter 16: Community Positive Psychology
“RSA Animate: The Empathetic Civilisation” by Jeremy Rifkin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
Chapter 17: Fairness and Justice
“Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally” by Frans de Waal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg
Chapter 18: Forgiveness
“The power of forgiveness”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2BITY-3Mp4
Chapter 19: The PATH Process
“Lily’s Disneyland Surprise!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOpOhlGiRTM&t=67s
Chapter 20: Optimism and Hope
“Wow: Autistic Waterboy scores Non-Stop 3-pointers!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV1akgvFknk
Chapter 21: Humor
“Human Behaviour experiment Lift Antics”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDLbbfT9_Q
Chapter 22: Appreciation and Gratitude
“The Shawshank Redemption Opera Scene”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzuM2XTnpSA
Chapter 23: Meaning and Purpose
“Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl | Core Message”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYBg9_069gg
Chapter 24: Review and Celebration
“Gratitude | Louie Schwartzberg”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ
202
Appendix E: Well-Being Survey

This survey is used in Chapters 1 and 24 and you can use it as much as you want to monitor
your progress in this change and to track changes in your happiness and well-being.
see what the scores mean in the table below and use this challenge to improve them.
your goals?
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
worthwhile?

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
203

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always


Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always
Never 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Always

_____Engagement (3, 10, 17)
_____Meaning (1, 8, 14)
Level of Ranges for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Ranges for Negative

Very high 27-30 0-3
High 24-26 4-9
Average 20-23 10-15
Low 15-19 16-19
Very low 0-14 20-30
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Appendix F: Pleasant Activities List

This list is used in Chapter 3.
1. Soaking in the bathtub 32. Working on my car (bicycle)
2. Planning my career 33. Remembering the words and deeds of
3. Getting out of (i.e., paying on) debt loving people
4. Collecting things (coins, shells, etc.) 34. Wearing sexy clothes
5. Going on vacation 35. Having quiet evenings
6. Thinking how it will be when I finish 36. Taking care of my plants
school 37. Buying, selling stock
7. Taking deep breaths 38. Going swimming
8. Recycling old items 39. Doodling
9. Going on a date 40. Exercising
10. Relaxing 41. Collecting old things
11. Going to a movie in the middle of the 42. Going to a party
week 43. Thinking about buying things
12. Jogging, walking 44. Playing golf
13. Thinking I have done a full day’s work 45. Playing soccer
14. Listening to music 46. Flying kites
15. Buying household gadgets 47. Having discussions with friends
16. Lying in the sun 48. Having family get-togethers
17. Laughing 49. Riding a motorcycle
18. Thinking about my past trips 50. Sex
19. Listening to others 51. Running
20. Reading magazines or newspapers 52. Going camping
21. Hobbies (stamp collecting, model 53. Singing around the house
building) 54. Arranging flowers
22. Spending an evening with good 55. Practicing religion (going to church,
friends group praying, etc.)
23. Planning a day’s activities 56. Losing weight
24. Meeting new people 57. Going to the beach
25. Remembering beautiful scenery 58. Thinking I’m an OK person
26. Saving money 59. A day with nothing to do
27. Going home from work 60. Going to reunions
28. Eating 61. Going skating
29. Practicing karate, judo, yoga 62. Going boating
30. Thinking about retirement 63. Traveling abroad or in the U.S.
31. Repairing things around the house
205
64. Painting 96. Thinking I have a lot more going for

65. Doing something spontaneous me than most people
66. Doing needlepoint, knitting, cross- 97. Going to plays and concerts
stitch, etc. 98. Daydreaming
67. Sleeping 99. Planning to go to school
68. Driving 100. Thinking about sex
69. Entertaining 101. Driving or taking a train cross-
70. Going to clubs (garden, Parents country
without Partners, etc.) 102. Listening to the stereo
71. Thinking about getting married 103. Refinishing furniture
72. Going hunting 104. Watching TV
73. Singing with groups 105. Making lists of tasks
74. Flirting 106. Going bike riding
75. Playing musical instruments 107. Walks in the woods (or at the
76. Doing arts and crafts waterfront)
77. Making a gift for someone 108. Giving gifts
78. Buying records 109. Traveling to national parks
79. Watching boxing, wrestling 110. Completing a task
80. Planning parties 111. Watching a spectator sport (football,
81. Cooking hockey, baseball)
82. Going hiking 112. Eating a favorite food
83. Writing short stories, novels, poems, 113. Teaching
or articles 114. Photography
84. Sewing 115. Going fishing
85. Buying clothes 116. Thinking about pleasant events
86. Going out to dinner 117. Playing with animals
87. Working 118. Flying a plane
88. Discussing books 119. Reading fiction
89. Sightseeing 120. Acting
90. Gardening 121. Spending time by yourself
91. Going to the beauty parlor 122. Writing diary entries or letters
92. Early morning coffee and newspaper 123. Cleaning
93. Playing tennis 124. Reading nonfiction
94. Kissing 125. Taking children places
95. Watching children (play) 126. Dancing
127. Going on a picnic
206
128. Thinking “I did that pretty well” after 163. Debating

doing something 164. Sitting in a sidewalk café
129. Meditating 165. Having an aquarium
130. Playing volleyball 166. Going horseback riding
131. Having lunch with a friend 167. Thinking about becoming active in
132. Going to the mountains the community
133. Thinking about people I like 168. Doing something new
134. Thoughts about happy moments in 169. Making jigsaw puzzles
my childhood 170. Thinking I’m a person who can cope
135. Splurging 171. Being in the country
136. Playing cards 172. Making contributions to religious,
137. Solving riddles mentally charitable, or other groups
138. Having a political discussion 173. Talking about sports
139. Playing softball 174. Meeting someone new
140. Seeing and/or showing photos or 175. Listening to live music
slides 176. Planning trips or vacations
141. Playing guitar 177. Rock climbing or mountaineering
142. Doing crossword puzzles 178. Reading the scriptures or other
143. Shooting pool sacred works
144. Dressing up and looking nice 179. Going to service, civic, or social club
145. Reflecting on how I’ve improved meetings
146. Buying things for myself (perfume, 180. Rearranging or redecorating my
golf balls, etc.) room or house
147. Talking on the phone 181. Being naked
148. Going to museums 182. Reading a “How to Do It” article or
149. Thinking religious thoughts book
150. Lighting candles 183. Reading stories, novels, poems or
plays
151. Listening to the radio
184. Going to lectures or hearing speakers
152. Getting a massage
185. Writing a song or a piece of music
153. Saying “I love you”
186. Saying something clearly
154. Thinking about my good qualities
187. Doing something nice for my parents
155. Buying books
188. Restoring antiques
156. Taking a sauna or a steam bath
189. Talking to myself
157. Going skiing
190. Working in politics
158. White-water canoeing or rafting
191. Working on machines
159. Going bowling
192. Completing a difficult task
160. Doing woodworking or carpentry
193. Solving a problem, puzzle or
161. Fantasizing about the future
crossword
162. Taking ballet, tap dancing
207
194. Laughing 223. Being popular at a gathering

195. Going to a celebration 224. Watching wild animals
196. Shaving 225. Having an original idea
197. Having lunch with friends or 226. Landscaping or yardwork
associates 227. Reading professional literature
198. Taking a shower 228. Wearing new clothes
199. Riding in an airplane 229. Just sitting and thinking
200. Exploring the wilderness 230. Seeing good things happen to my
201. Having a frank and open family and friends
conversation 231. Going to a fair, carnival, circus, zoo
202. Thinking about myself or my life or amusement park
203. Speaking or learning a foreign 232. Talking about philosophy
language 233. Planning or organizing something
204. Going to a business meeting or a 234. Listening to the sounds of nature
convention 235. Dating or courting
205. Being in a sporty or expensive car 236. Having a lively talk
206. Cooking 237. Having friends come to visit
207. Being helped 238. Playing sports
208. Wearing informal clothes 239. Introducing people who I think
209. Combing or brushing my hair would like each other
210. Taking a nap 240. Getting letters, cards or notes
211. Canning, freezing, making preserves, 241. Watching the clouds, sky or a storm
etc. 242. Going on outings to the park, a
212. Solving a personal problem picnic, a barbecue, etc.
213. Being in a city 243. Giving a speech or a lecture
214. Singing to myself 244. Reading maps
215. Making food or crafts to sell or give 245. Gathering natural objects (rocks or
away driftwood)
216. Playing chess or checkers 246. Working on my finances
217. Doing craftwork (pottery, jewelry, 247. Wearing clean clothes
leather, beads and weaving) 248. Making a major purchase or
218. Scratching myself investment
219. Putting on makeup 249. Helping someone
220. Designing or drafting 250. Getting promoted
221. Visiting people who are sick, shut in, 251. Hearing jokes
or in trouble 252. Talking about my children or
222. Cheering or rooting grandchildren
208
253. Going to a crusade 287. Using perfume, cologne, or

254. Talking about good health aftershave
255. Seeing beautiful scenery 288. Having someone agree with me
256. Eating good healthy meals 289. Reminiscing about old times
257. Improving my health (having my 290. Getting up early in the morning
teeth fixed, getting new glasses, changing 291. Having peace and quiet
my diet) 292. Doing experiments and other
258. Doing a job well scientific work
259. Having spare time 293. Visiting friends
260. Loaning something 294. Playing football
261. Being noticed as sexually attractive 295. Being counseled
262. Making others happy 296. Saying prayers
263. Counseling someone 297. Giving a massage
264. Going to a health club 298. Taking adult education courses
265. Learning to do something new 299. Doing favors for people
266. Thinking about my parents 300. Talking with people I enjoy
267. Supporting causes you believe in 301. Being asked for help or advice
(social, political or environmental) 302. Helping other people solve their
268. Kicking leaves, sand, pebbles, etc. problems
269. Playing lawn sports (badminton, 303. Playing board games
croquet, bocce, horseshoes) 304. Sleeping soundly at night
270. Seeing famous people 305. Snowmobile or dune buggy riding
271. Going to the movies or renting one 306. Being in a support group
272. Budgeting my time 307. Dreaming at night
273. Being praised by people I admire 308. Playing ping-pong
274. Feeling a spiritual presence in my life 309. Brushing my teeth
275. Doing a project in my own way 310. Walking barefoot
276. Doing odd jobs around the house 311. Playing Frisbee or catch
277. Crying 312. Doing housework or laundry
278. Being told I am needed 313. Petting and necking
279. Being at a family reunion or get- 314. Amusing people
together 315. Going to a barber or hair stylist
280. Giving a party 316. Having houseguests
281. Washing my hair 317. Being with someone I love
282. Coaching someone 318. Sleeping late
283. Going to a restaurant 319. Starting a new project
284. Seeing or smelling a flower or a plant 320. Being assertive
285. Being invited out 321. Going to the library
286. Receiving honors
209
322. Playing rugby or lacrosse 345. Staying up late

323. Birdwatching 346. Going skiing or snowboarding
324. Shopping 347. Having family members or friends do
325. Playing video games or going to an something that makes me proud of them
arcade 348. Going to auctions, garage sales, etc.
326. People watching 349. Thinking about an interesting
327. Building or watching a fire question
328. Selling or trading something 350. Doing volunteer work, working on
329. Finishing a project or task community service projects
330. Apologizing 351. Water skiing, surfing, and scuba
diving
331. Learning a new computer skill
352. Defending or protecting someone;
332. Being a leader
stopping fraud or abuse
333. Being with happy people
353. Hearing a good sermon
334. Playing games
354. Winning a competition
335. Writing cards or notes
355. Making a new friend
336. Asking for help or advice
356. Reading cartoons, comic strips or
337. Talking about my hobbies or special comic books
interests
357. Borrowing something
338. Smiling at people
358. Traveling in a group
339. Playing in sand, a stream, the grass,
359. Seeing old friends
etc.
360. Mentoring someone
340. Expressing my love to someone
361. Using my strength
341.Talking with friends over coffee or
tea 362. Attending an opera or the ballet
342. Playing handball, paddleball, squash, 363. Playing with pets
etc. 364. Looking at the stars or the moon
343. “Surfing” the internet 365. Being coached
344. Remembering a departed friend or
loved one, visiting the cemetery
Reference:
MacPhillamy, D. J., & Lewinsohn, P. M. (1982). The pleasant events schedule: Studies on
reliability, validity, and scale intercorrelation. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50(3),
363-380.
210
Appendix G: Strength Spotting Tool

This tool is used in Chapter 7. Below are the 24 VIA character strengths. Which of these most
strongly describes someone you know? Check off those strengths that you most clearly see in them.
Choose about five strengths and no more than seven. Reflect on what they have done and/or said
that makes you check one of the strengths for them. Let them know what you see if you can.
WISDOM
_____ Creativity: ingenuity; sees & does things in new/unique ways; original and adaptive ideas
_____ Curiosity: novelty-seeker; takes an interest; open to different experiences; asks questions
_____ Open-mindedness & Judgment: critical thinker; analytical; logical; thinks things through
_____ Love of learning: masters new skills & topics; passionate about knowledge & learning
_____ Wisdom: wise; provides wise counsel; sees the big pictures; integrates others’ views.
COURAGE
_____ Bravery: valorous; does not shrink from fear; speaks up for what’s right
_____ Perseverance: persistent; industrious; overcomes obstacles; finishes what is started
_____ Authenticity, Integrity, & Honesty: integrity; truthful; authentic
_____ Zest: enthusiastic; energetic; vital; feels alive and activated
HUMANITY
_____ Love: gives and accepts love; genuine; values close relations with others
_____ Kindness: generous; nurturing; caring; compassionate; altruistic; nice
_____ Social and/or Emotional Intelligence: aware of the motives and feelings of
oneself & others, know what makes other people tick
JUSTICE
_____ Citizenship and/or Teamwork: a team player; community-focused, socially
responsible; loyal
_____ Fairness: acts upon principles of justice; does not allow feelings to bias decisions about
others
_____ Leadership: organizes group activities; encourages and leads groups to get things done
TEMPERANCE
_____ Forgiveness: merciful; accepts others’ shortcomings; gives people a second chance
_____ Humility: modest; lets accomplishments speak for themselves; focuses on others
_____ Prudence: careful; wisely cautious; thinks before speaking; does not take undue risks
_____ Self-control: self-controlled; disciplined; manages impulses & emotions
TRANSCENDENCE
_____ Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence: awe-filled; quickly moved to wonder;
marvels at beauty & greatness
_____ Gratitude: thanks for the good; expresses thanks; feels blesses
_____ Optimism & Hope: optimistic; future-minded; has a positive outlook
_____ Humor: playful; enjoys joking and bringing smiles to others; lighthearted
_____ Meaning, Purpose, & Spirituality: meaning & purpose-driven, religious and/or spiritual
211
Appendix H: Relationship Appreciative Inquiry

This form is used in Chapter 13.
Your Name________________________ Their Name____________________________
Relationship appreciative Inquiry is a process of recognizing the best in another person,

reflecting on it and then saying or doing what you can do to foster your relationship and
bring out the best in them.
Question Your Answer and Reflections on the Question
Why are they

1 important to me?
2 Why am I grateful to
or for them?
3 What do I appreciate
about them?
4 What strengths do I
see in them?
212
5 How can I best

support them?
How can I help them

6 be their best, reach
their goals, and be
happy?
7 What can I do to try

to reduce or heal any
wounds between us?
8 What is the best gift

that I can give to
them?
If they or I were to
9 die tomorrow, what
would I want to be
sure to say to or do
for them?
Based upon my
answers and
10 reflections, what can
I say or do to foster
our relationship and
their well-being?
213
Appendix I: Acts of Kindness Planner

This planner is used in Chapter 15.
Instructions: Begin by reading through this list of kind acts and put a letter in the “Try”
column to indicate those you would most like to try. Put an “A” for those you would most
like to try, a “B” for those that aren’t quite as high on your list, and a “C” for those you
would like to consider again at some point. After you have tried any of them, put in a grade
(A, B, C, D, etc.) to indicate how much of a positive impact doing the kind act had on you
(the “Self” column) and any others that the kind act was for (the “Other” column).
A. Actions
Try Self Other
1 Wash someone’s dishes.
2 Let a person at the coffee shop have the cream before you.
3 Put stones with kindness quotes in random public places.
4 Return shopping carts when you are walking into the store.
5 Hold the elevator for someone or let people go in before you.
6 Be kind to someone when they are being mean or rude to you.
Save a parking spot for someone when you are leaving yours.
7 (Flag them down)
Grab the door for someone when they are coming in to a place
8 that you are already in.
Leave quarters in the quarter slot, enough for a load of laundry
9 at the laundry mat.
10 Give up your seat to anyone who needs it.
11 Hold the door open for someone.
12 Laugh wholeheartedly at someone’s joke.
Help someone put luggage into the overhead bin or grab it off
13 the baggage claim line for them.
Let someone get in line in front of you at the grocery store and
14 tell them you have plenty of time.
15 Tell someone a funny joke.
16 Grab someone else’s tray to dump at a fast-food restaurant.
17 Offer to spot someone at the gym.
18 Text a random number and tell them to have an awesome day!
19 Post a string of motivational quotes on social media.
Answer a question on Quora in your area of expertise to help
20 someone out.
Say happy birthday to someone you see when you get notified
21 that it is their birthday on Facebook or other social media.
214
Put a kind note in the pocket of jeans or a jacket at the store

22 that tells them you hope they find what they are looking for.
23 Let someone in when driving in traffic.
24 Tell someone how funny you think they are.
Be genuinely nice to someone who is cold calling you without
25 feeling like you have to buy what they are selling.
High five someone to help them celebrate something good for
26 happening for them.
27 Help someone fix a flat tire.
28 Leave a newspaper or magazine for someone to read for free.
29 Pick up weights or help unload weights for someone at the gym.
30 Put a note one someone’s car wishing them a good day.
B. At Home
Try Self Other
1 Unexpectedly, tell your spouse you love them.
Practice identifying the strengths and positive qualities of
2 friends and family members and them then tell about it.
Call the person who was the biggest positive influence on your
3 life and let them know how much they mean to you.
Ask if you can grab anything for anyone when leaving the house
4 or going outside the office.
5 Do someone else’s chore in your household.
Put away dishes your roommates left out to dry while you are
6 cleaning up.
7 Do your roommate’s laundry when you are doing yours.
8 Let someone borrow your computer or printer.
Clean the house so that your loved ones or roommates come
9 home to a sparkling clean home.
C. At Work
Try Self Other
1 Help a friend find a job or better job if they already have one.
Praise a co-worker to your manager. Either in front of them or
2 without them knowing.
3 Praise your boss either verbally or through a thank you note
4 Let someone know about a job opening that you saw.
5 Make a pot of coffee when the coffee is low at the office.
6 Bring donuts and coffee to your work one day.
Clean out the microwave at work. That thing gets nasty and
7 everyone will appreciate it
8 Offer to cover a person’s shift or work to give them time off.
9 Bring extra food for lunch at work and give it away.
215
10 Invite a co-worker or friend over for a home cooked meal.

Make a meal for someone, breakfast in bed, or bring lunch to a
11 co-worker.
12 Bring a candy bar to a friend at work.
Put a bowl of candy out at the office. Or, put out healthy snacks
13 to promote wellness.
Offer up one of your sick days to someone who really needs a
14 day off or stay late for a co-worker who needs to get home.
Create a connection with someone you know that can make for
15 a good professional or personal contact.
D. Caring/Empathy
Try Self Other
Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone you are angry with,
1 so you can better understand them.
Be someone’s accountability partner in helping them make a
2 positive change.
Offer someone a ride to an appointment or meeting where it
3 takes forever to find parking.
Offer to take someone’s photo when they are trying to take one
4 of themselves.
Hold someone’s hand when they are sharing their hurt or pain
5 with you.
Reach out to someone who you lost touch with and tell them
6 how much the time with them meant to you.
7 Give a bottle of water to a homeless person.
Tell someone who is sick or has a broken limb that you hope
8 they experience the quickest recovery ever.
9 Pray for someone else and tell them you are praying for you.
Go over and above to help someone who is lost. See if you can
10 help them find their way.
Ask someone you care about if you can give them a hug because
11 they are so important to you.
12 Turn your phone off when talking in person or put it away.
13 Tell someone you believe in them.
14 See the best in someone and tell them about it.
15 Talk to a person you think is lonely to see how they are.
16 Go play a game with someone at a retirement community.
Use chalk to write a positive message or quote on the sidewalk
17 of a street where a lot of people will see it.
18 Ask someone who has suffered a loss how they are doing.
216
19 Help an elderly or disabled person put their groceries in the car.

20 Truly listen to someone without interrupting them.
21 Make better eye contact when people are talking to you.
Practice active constructive responding to share the excitement
22 and celebrate with someone who has good news.
Walk an elderly or disabled person across the crosswalk to make
23 sure they get there safely.
24 Pay someone a thoughtful compliment in front of others.
25 Smile at every stranger you walk by on the street.
26 Buy an umbrella to give to a homeless person when it is raining.
Genuinely listen to someone with a different political viewpoint
27 and thank them for helping you understand it.
Write a motivational or encouraging message on a napkin and
28 leave it at a restaurant or bar.
Really listen to someone when they are upset without feeling
29 like you have to tell them what to do.
30 Don’t interrupt someone when they are talking.
Give the person next to you a word of encouragement at the
31 gym to keep up with the healthy habit.
Ask someone who you think experiences discrimination what it
32 is like and if there is anything you can do to make it better.
33 Stand up for someone who is being bullied or harassed.
Ask someone you care about how you can help them achieve
34 their goals or dreams.
E. Children
Try Self Other
1 Send school supplies to your local elementary school.
2 Bring coloring books and crayons to pediatrics in the hospital.
3 Tell a parent or child and tell them how you appreciate them.
Leave some change at the playground for kids to find with a
4 note telling them they are special.
5 Help a mother carry her stroller over a curb or upstairs.
6 Compliment a family on how nice they are in public.
Let a friend who is a parent know your favorite quality about
7 their child or how they parent their child.
8 Sponsor a child in need.
9 Go to the sports game of a friend’s kid and cheer them on.
Leave a dollar bill on the ground near where children are
10 walking and watch how much joy they get from finding it.
11 Read to children during story time at your local library
12 Pay way more than kids charge at a lemonade stand.
13 Babysit a friend’s kid for free.
217
F. Compliments/Encouragement
Try Self Other
Compliment someone on their unique style or for being true to
1 themselves.
2 Tell someone you look up to them because they didn’t give up.
Text someone you care about and tell them you were thinking
3 about them and hope they are well.
Write a letter or email to someone you are grateful expressing
4 your gratitude to them.
5 Tell someone how much they mean to you
6 Compliment someone on how well they have raised their kids.
Dedicate a song on the radio to a friend, family member or
7 loved one.
8 Let a couple know how much you admire their relationship.
9 Compliment someone’s smile.
10 Tell someone how nice their new haircut looks.
11 Tell someone how good it is to see them.
Text someone you just met up with or talked to about how you
12 much enjoyed the conversation and the time they took to chat.
Compliment someone’s beard by saying how folically gifted they
13 are.
Say something super nice about someone who people are
14 gossiping or saying bad things about.
Tell someone how great they look that day or how what they are
15 wearing looks nice.
Write a letter or email to someone you love telling them how
16 much you love and appreciate them.
17 Tell someone how great they look in what they're wearing.
18 Put positive comments on someone’s blog.
Tell someone you believe in them when they tell you they have
19 something they want to achieve.
Write a letter or email to someone you look up to telling them
20 how much you admire them.
Write an encouraging message, print out copies, and put them in
21 public places where others will find them.
G. Donations
Try Self Other
1 Donate some of your gently worn shoes to “Soles4Souls.”
218
Donate old toys to Toys for Tots so less fortunate children

2 around the world can have a great Christmas.
Donate your computer to a student who may not be able to
3 afford one.
4 Become an organ donor.
Ask people to donate to the homeless on social media and offer
5 to pick up and deliver to a homeless shelter.
6 Give your extra books to the library as a donation.
7 Donate your old phone or charger to “Cell Phones for Soldiers”
8 Donate to a cause when asked when checking out at a store.
9 Create a Go Fund Me page for a cause you care about.
10 Give your old bike to someone who doesn’t have a car.
11 Donate your hair to Locks of Love.
12 Donate things you don’t need any more to Goodwill.
13 Participate in a fundraiser for a cause you care about.
14 Donate clothing for someone who is homeless.
15 Donate a pint of blood or plasma.
16 Donate canned goods to a food pantry.
17 Do a run or a walk for a cause you believe in.
H. Family and Friends
Try Self Other
1 Offer to house sit for a friend while they are on vacation.
Text a simple “Good Morning” and tell them you hope they
2 have a great day
Offer to help a friend to unpack after they have moved or when
3 they get home from a long trip.
4 Bring in the neighbor’s trash cans when you bring yours in.
5 Help a friend move.
6 Offer to be the designated driver one weekend.
7 Give away your boxes to a friend that you know that is moving.
8 Give away the last slice of pizza or cake.
9 Pick someone up from the airport.
10 Help with yard work.
Help shop for deals for their next trip. Deals on travel,
11 expenses, fun etc.
12 Throw a block party and invite everyone.
13 Buy a friend a week’s worth of groceries.
14 Bring a sick friend soup or something else they can enjoy.
Buy a lottery ticket and put a note on it that you hope they win
15 the big bucks.
Encourage the person to go for their goals to get what they
16 want.
219
17 Wash the car.

Put a friend on your gym membership for a month to get them
18 started with fitness.
19 Throw a surprise party for someone you care about.
20 Send a copy of a photo of a good memory to family or friend.
21 Share discount coupons that you find.
Wipe down the windshield of the car when you stop together at
22 a gas station.
23 Send an email of a funny joke.
24 Tell someone what your favorite quality about them is.
25 Throw out the trash on the way out of the house.
Use social media to let someone know how big of an impact
26 they have had on your life.
27 Buy a book about someone or something you know they like.
28 Send $20 Amazon gift card.
29 Run an errand.
Celebrate a victory or promotion by buying them lunch and
30 asking them to tell you all about it.
Send a song or song lyric that describes your relationship or
31 what they mean to you.
Call someone who is down or stressed and tell them you are
32 there to help them get through it.
33 Buy a bookmark for someone you know who loves to read.
34 Send copies of an inspirational book.
Create a digital album. Fill it with good memories or pictures
35 you have taken of them.
36 Create a thoughtful playlist for someone close to you.
37 Make a custom-made shirt or hat.
Give a sustainable water bottle that they can drink out of to help
38 their health and save them money.
Offer a ride to a friend who doesn’t have a car or carpool with
39 someone to help them save gas.
40 Offer to go to shop for someone who is sick or stuck at home.
41 Share your favorite recipe on social media.
42 Write a poem to someone.
Offer to babysit or kid sit, so the parent can get some time to
43 themselves.
44 Write a get-well card to someone who is sick
45 Offer to read a book or magazine to a friend or loved one.
46 Call and laugh about your favorite memory with them.
220
47 Offer to do an errand.
Befriend the new person at the gym, in town, at work or
48 anywhere in your life.
49 Text a motivational quote.
I. Gifts
Try Self Other
1 Share a cab with someone and pay the whole fare.
2 Buy a bus ticket for someone.
3 Put money in someone’s meter so they don’t get a ticket.
Bake cookies or muffins and bring them to all the bank tellers at
4 your preferred bank.
Buy a fitness product for the person that always checks you in at
5 the gym.
6 Hand out bottles of hand sanitizer for people during flu season.
Bring someone a souvenir or unique gift from somewhere you
7 traveled to.
Pass along a good book that you have just read to someone you
8 think may appreciate it.
9 Pay the road or bridge toll for the person driving behind you.
10 Buy the movie ticket for the person in line behind you.
Leave your bus pass on the bench when you are done with it for
11 the day for someone else to find and use.
Buy the food or drink of the person behind in the drive
12 through.
13 Buy an audio book for someone you know who commutes a lot.
14 Buy a drink for a person that sits next to you at the bar.
15 Give someone the gift of time.
Leave extra money in the vending machine so someone can get
16 a free snack.
17 Buy a homeless person a meal.
18 Offer a free weekend class that teaches kids what you know.
19 Give a homeless person your jacket.
Ask a waiter if they have recently received a bad tip and then
20 make up for it by giving them extra money.
21 Pay for the haircut of someone getting cut next to you.
Bring extra coupons and give them out to people in line at the
22 store you go to.
Buy flowers for someone and put them where they will find
23 them with a thoughtful note.
24 Buy a sweet treat for someone else when you buy your own.
25 Give someone else the cab that you flagged down.
221
Return someone’s book and/or pay off someone’s past due

26 library charges.
27 Buy the groceries for someone behind you in the grocery line.
28 Anonymously pay for someone’s meal when dining out.
29 Buy someone a flower and leave it where they will find it.
30 Buy sunglasses for a homeless person if it is bright out.
J. Kindness to/about Nature/Animals/The Environment

Try Self Other
1 Give thanks to nature and the beauty it offers to us.
2 Volunteer at the animal shelter and bring treats for the animals.
3 Build a bird feeder and put food in it for birds.
4 Feed some birds.
5 Buy some toys for your friend's dog.
6 Comb your friend’s dog.
7 Walk someone’s dog for them.
8 Put out a cup of water when you see a dog leashed up.
9 Adopt an animal.
10 Pet someone’s dog and tell them how much you like their dog.
11 Paint or clean off graffiti.
12 Start to recycle more often.
13 Pick up trash on your street or walking trail.
14 Plant a tree or flowers in a place that could use them.
K. Saying Thanks
Try Self Other
Tip a musician who is playing on the street and wish him/her
1 the best.
2 Leave a large tip for a waiter or some other hospitality worker.
Give someone working on your house, like a painter, electrician
3 or plumber, a soda or cold glass of water.
Tell your grocery checker you appreciate everything they do and
4 hope they have a good day.
Reach out and thank your favorite company or brand for the
5 products or services they create.
Thank a soldier for their service and offer to buy them lunch or
6 coffee.
7 Thank every veteran you meet for their service.
8 Write a thank you letter to a soldier or veteran.
9 Say thank you to anyone who helps you and mean it.
222
10 Directly thank a police officer for the work they do.

Send a note to the police station letting them know how much
11 you appreciate them keeping you safe.
Thank the cooks at a restaurant for cooking you such great
12 food.
Reach out to a former teacher letting them know how much you
13 appreciate them.
Wave to a firefighter or police officer to thank them for their
14 service.
Reach out to the pastor of your church and tell him or her how
15 awesome their messages are.
16 Thank the mail person for getting your mail to you on time.
Tell the person who serves you coffee how much you appreciate
17 the caffeine and how you wouldn’t be the same without them!
Leave an online review about how awesome a restaurant and/or
18 server was.
19 Thank your custodian for keeping your building clean.
Tell an elderly person how much you appreciate their wisdom
20 and life experience.
21 Thank a parent for all they did to raise you.
Call your grandparents and tell them how you loved what they
22 did for you as a child.
23 Send your mother or grandmother flowers.
L. Kindness to One’s Self

Try Self Other
Get up a little earlier each morning and give gratitude for the
1 things and people in life you are grateful for.
2 Congratulate yourself for being a part of this challenge.
3 Be kind to yourself by letting go of a mistake you made.
4 Be kind to yourself by asking for help when you need it.
5 Meditate for ten minutes as an expression of self-kindness.
6 Write a forgiveness letter to yourself for something you did.
Allow yourself to feel good about yourself for having read
7 through this list.
Write a forgiveness letter to someone who has harmed you and
8 send it if you think it is appropriate.
Meditate on what you can do to contribute to the happiness of
9 another person in your life.
223
Appendix J: Community Cause Inventory

This inventory is used in Chapter 16.
First, list the causes that may affect the larger community and world that you care about.
Second, rate the importance of each and your willingness and ability to do something to
support each on a 0-10 scale where 0 = not at all and 10 = a great deal. Finally, rank the top
three causes and write down something you can do to support each of the top three.
How How How able

Community important willing are are you
is this you to do to do
Cause cause to something something
you? for it? for it?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
List and rank the three causes you would most like to support and write down something
you can do to support each.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
224
Appendix K: Guidelines for the PATH Process

This guide is introduced in Chapter 19.
The PATH process is a way to visualize and chart a “path” to your best possible life and what will enable you to
achieve it. PATH is an acronym that stands for Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope and it involves a
planning process developed in the 1990s by Jack Pearpoint, John O’Brien, and Marsha Forrest (Pearpoint et al.,
2011). This description of the process is taken from the book that I wrote called Positive Psychology for Your Hero’s
Journey (Smith, 2018). The PATH process provides a series of steps that can be proactively taken to make positive
change happen. The process is very flexible and can be used with groups and organizations as well as individuals.
The PATH process uses a visual or “graphic” approach with a series of steps to help you make a long-term plan
to reach your most important life goals. The process involves creating a map of these steps on a large sheet of poster
paper and writing down what will help you reach your goals. The process can be led by a trained facilitator, but
individuals can also learn to do it themselves by reading about it and watching online videos about it. Either way, it
is a wonderful way to get “unstuck” and start a new process of positive change in your life. When completed, you
will have the poster as a practical reminder and guide to help you move towards your most important goals.
The process involves eight steps that usually take a total of 2-4 hours to complete. Although you can go through
the steps alone, it is best to gather together a “dream team” of other people who are willing to support you in the
process. The eight steps in the PATH process are very well-suited for positive psychology and the idea of making a
hero’s journey. PATH is also a good match for the hope theory developed by Rick Snyder. When you are done, you
will have a visual representation of your “best possible life” and a plan for making it happen. In going through the
eight steps, it may be helpful to refer to the examples of PATHs in the videos listed below and by ‘googling’ PATHS
on the internet.
The first step is called Touching the Dream and involves envisioning a “north star” that represents what you
want most in life and what would embody your “best possible life.” This “north star” will orient and guide you in
the rest of the process and be the starting point for breaking your dream down into realistic goals. This can be a
direct way to imagine and bring to life the elements of well-being in Martin Seligman’s PERMA theory of well-being.
The second step is called Sensing the Goal and it involves identifying “positive and possible” goals for the future
and a timeframe for reaching these goals. If you had a dream of increasing the meaning and purpose in your life by
helping troubled adolescents, for example, then this step might involve the more specific goal of starting a non-
profit organization for them.
While the first two steps are focused on the best possible future, the third step is called Ground in the Now
and involves identifying where you are now in relation to reaching your goals. If your goal is to start a non-profit to
help adolescents, then focusing on the now can help you see how far you are from it and just what you need to do to
begin to reach your goal.
The fourth step is called Invite Enrollment and involves identifying and inviting people who are in a good
position to provide encouragement and support to help you reach your goals. These people will be called your
“dream team” and could include friends, family members, teachers, coaches or anyone you think could help you.
This step fits nicely with Meeting the Mentor and finding Allies in the hero’s journey and with the value placed on
human relationships in positive psychology.
The fifth step is called Building Strength and it involves recognizing ways to build strengths and acquire new
skills and talents. This step reflects the primary emphasis in positive psychology on identifying and using strengths.
It also supports the kind of training we see in the hero’s journey where characters like Luke Skywalker in Star Wards
get trained in the ways of the Force and Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to school at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter
series.
225
The final three steps include making a plan to bridge the gap between the now and reaching the vision and goals
described in the first two steps. The goals identified in these steps should follow the guidelines of the SMART
acronym in that they are: (1) Specific, (2) Measurable, (3) Achievable, (4) Relevant, and (5) Time-bound. The sixth
step is to Identify Bold Steps to achieve longer-term goals for the next several months, the seventh step is
Organizing the Month’s Work by being specific about who will do what and when in the next month, and the
eighth step is simply Committing to the First Step which means doing one thing to get started.
Whether or not you go through the PATH process with a trained facilitator, the process can be a wonderful tool
for being more proactive in your own journey to whatever makes you most happy. Visualizing what you most want
in your life may free you from the limitations of language. Furthermore, starting with imagining the best possible
future before coming back to the now can counter the negativity bias that keeps you from believing your life can get
better. Finally, enlisting people to support you may be a great way to begin and focusing on your strengths may give
you an empowering new vision of yourself.
The following are helpful videos for understanding the PATH process:
https://northstarfacilitators.com/the-path-process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ecv_VN9KyI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlKACFFEUdc
There are also additional materials provided by Tiffany Miner who has used and taught the PATH process and
who you can email with questions: footprints93@gmail.com.
References:
Pearpoint, J., O'Brien, J., & Forest, M. (2011). PATH: A workbook for planning positive possible futures. Toronto, CA:
Inclusion Press.
Smith, B.W. (2018) Positive psychology for your hero’s journey: Discovering true and lasting happiness. Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct
Publishing.
226

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Chapter 16: Community Positive Psychology ........................................... 127

How to Use this Workbook

Each chapter in this workbook contains:

Part 1 - Basic Training

What is Part 1 about?

1. Author Video of the Lesson

3. Special Video – “What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler”

4. Three Good Things Activity

3. How often do you become absorbed in what you are doing?

4. In general, how often do you feel joyful?

6. In general, how often do you feel anxious?

9. In general, how often do you feel positive?

11. In general, how often do you feel angry?

12. To what extent have you been feeling loved?

15. How satisfied are you with your personal relationships?

16. In general, how often do you feel sad?

18. In general, to what extent do you feel contented?

Level of Range for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Range for Negative

Very high 27-30 0-3

What Do You Want Most?

1. Author’s Video of the Lesson

2. Special Video - “Alan Watts - What Do You desire?”

3. Three Good Things Activity

1. What has brought you the most happiness in the past?

3. Who are the most important people in your life?

4. What do you like to do in your spare time?

5. What would you most like to do for work?

6. What has brought the most meaning to your life?

7. What are your most important goals for the future?

9. How would you like to be remembered after you are gone?

10. What do you most want out of life?

How Can You Make It Happen?

1. Author Video of the Lesson

2. Special Video - “Shawn Achor - The Happiness Advantage”

3. Three Good Things Activity

4. Pleasant Events Activity

Mindfulness and Acceptance

1. Author Video for the Lesson

2. Special Video - “Flashmob – Ode an die Freude (Ode to Joy)”

3. Mindful Breathing Activity

4. Three Good Things Activity

Resilience and Stress-Related Growth

1. Author Video for this Lesson

2. Special Video - “Heather Dorniden’s Inspiring 600 meter race"

3. Resilience in the Past

4. Resilience in the Future

5. Three Good Things Activity

Wisdom and Creativity

1. Author Video for the Lesson

2. Special Video - “The best gift I ever survived | Stacey Kramer”

4. Wheel of Life Activity

5. Three Good Things Activity

Part 2 – Bringing Out

What is Part 2 about?