My sister, the unicorn. Tuesday February 14, 2012

If you wanted to teach a class of children how to draw, it would maybe make more sense to watch how a great artist works than it would be to understand where it all went wrong for a group of 'couldn't draw a stick-man' people.

One of positive psychology's foundations is that whereas psychologists used to apply much of their energy to trying to understand unhappiness, perhaps it would make (more?) sense to look at the other end of the spectrum, to get to the bottom of what actually makes upbeat people the way they are.

I wrote about positive psychologist Shawn Achor last September after reading his book. (I also mistakenly typed his name as Anchor, an error tactfully and kindly pointed out to me by a Moodscoper.)

Should you have twelve minutes and twenty-one seconds to spare, I can now thoroughly recommend Shawn's video on Ted.com:

http://bit.ly/zFivBH

He's a whizz on his subject. He's also very fast-speaking and very funny, including a lovely segment when he talks of persuading his kid sister that she was a unicorn.

Watch it to understand it.

Just don't call him Anchor.

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