The Kick-Ass Blog

Side effects for people who apply Positive Psychology research include an enhanced sense of mindfulness, strengthening of your focusing muscle, and (lab-proven) improved health outcomes. Users may also experience a greater level of empathy with those they love, or even just like.

“Dad, you do that know that books are dead, right?“ warned one of our kids, to whom I would later dedicate my 2015 book “Laugh More, Yell Less: A guide to raising kick-ass kids.“

And the funny thing is that they were the rare kind of kid that would actually sit down and read. In fact, they would regularly do something that I struggle to do: finish a book.

OK, let’s see. Who is in here, fighting for your attention? There’s that jumble of emotional reactions that always seem to get tangled up in the corner, waiting for you to express your feelings. We also have your to-do list vibrating down here, bubbling up all these DO-IT-NOW! tasks that were “important” last week. Now they are overdue and starting to stink up the place.

When you take your full, abundant potential and limit it to one-and-a-half senses (vision and sometimes hearing), you leave out the best parts of yourself. You play the game that is dictated by technology and advertising executives. To build the support team that will help us make better decisions, we need to employ ALL of our senses. Think about the sense of awe you get when you watch a baby learn how to master something new.

In my experience, smart decisions require more than IQ. Professionals with higher Emotional Intelligence (EQ) tend to make decisions with more humanity and empathy. Why does EQ matter in making decisions? Because connections and relationships are more valuable in our new economy than knowledge or status. Your EQ will help you understand what others are doing and thinking and feeling. In the Connection Economy, your future wealth will depend on your EQ.

Everyone starts out a little stiff and thoughtful. Who am I going to throw this to? Then we speed up. That’s when we get out of our heads. That’s when the laughter starts…

It shouldn’t feel so foreign to make eye contact but we don’t have real conversations without technology. No one feels heard. And without a place to open up, we don’t bother to speak up. So no one is talking and no one is listening.