The Un-Dissertation

Another “fundamentals” book right up there beside MindSets, this book describes the fascinating research on how we can create the conditions for flourishing - not just surviving - in our lifes, relationships, health, and career. A great book for developing specific skills to stay in a Positive Place AND to gain all the benefits of that Positivity. An excellent summary of current research, including the idea of the Positivity Ratio.

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson discovered the Positivity Ratio — that experiencing positive emotions in a 3-to-1 ratio with negative ones leads people to a tipping point beyond which they naturally become more resilient to adversity and effortlessly achieve what they once could only imagine. The book shows you how to get there.

Don’t know if you need to get more positive? Try the quiz at PositivityRatio.com

Together with Mindsets, in my opinion, these are the core of how to bring your heart and mind into the best place to live from and why to do it.

How to think differently about the whole dissertation process. In my opinion, this is a essential step to take to shift the whole task from a painful  “rite of passage” to an empowering and maybe even useful(!) undertaking to set you on the way to a successful long-term career.

The original inspiration for the UnDissertation - fundamental resource for re-shaping “dissertation-thinking”.

Working on your dissertation can be a stressful experience for your brain and body. One of the dangers is in how you actually pay attention to it — maintaining a “narrow focus”, zoomed in to the details of what you’re writing hour after hour, day after day, is stress-producing. It keeps your brain in “emergency mode”, where it isn’t intended to be all the time. “Open Focus” is a technique developed by Dr. Les Fehmi at Princeton that allows you to get your brain back into an “idling” mode, where it can relax and recharge and be ready for the need to narrow focus. Even better, you just may discover that you don’t need to use your attention quite as intensively — letting you work more easily, reduce the strain on your brain and body, and feel so much better over all. The book explains the theory and process and comes with a cd of Open Focus exercises led by Dr. Fehmi.