Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat

Michelle Gielan - The Biggest Predictors of Happiness and Building a Happy Home

July 01, 2020 Episode 22
Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat
Michelle Gielan - The Biggest Predictors of Happiness and Building a Happy Home
Show Notes

I adore my guest in this episode, the brilliant Michelle Gielan. Michelle has spent the past decade researching the link between happiness and success. She is the bestselling author of "Broadcasting Happiness: The Science of Igniting and Sustaining Positive Change" and was named one of the Top 10 authors on resilience by the Harvard Business Review. She is also an Executive Producer of “The Happiness Advantage” on PBS and a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. 

Michelle is an inspiring woman: she was trained as a computer engineer, found her way into broadcast journalism at CBS through sheer persistence and willpower, then began studying positive psychology, reaching star status in the field along with her husband, Shawn Achor. She is a living example of truly subscribing to optimism - defined as expecting good things to happen and understanding the role of your reactions in shaping outcomes of situations.

Listen as we discuss:

  • What it really means to be optimistic
  • How the persistent negativity found in journalism sparked her pursuit of optimism in reporting and beyond
  • How Michelle and her husband Shawn Achor have been handling the pandemic, or "How a Happiness Household Behaves"
  • Taking calculated risks
  • The two biggest predictors of happiness
  • The exercise of Fact Checking for coping with anxiety
  • Her own battle with depression
  • Why we often feel we need to hide our optimism in order to gain respect
  • How the most impactful person in the room is not the most negative or the most positive, but the one who most genuinely expresses their mindset

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LinkedIn: /in/mogawdat

Connect with Michelle Gielan at michellegielan.com and on Facebook @michellegielan, Instagram @michellegielan, and Twitter @michellegielan

Don't forget to subscribe to Slo Mo for new episodes every Monday and Thursday. Only with your help can we reach One Billion Happy #onebillionhappy. 

YouTube: @mogawdatofficial
Instagram: @mo_gawdat
Facebook: @mo.gawdat.official
LinkedIn: /in/mogawdat
X: @mgawdat
Website: mogawdat.com

Don't forget to subscribe to Slo Mo for new episodes every Saturday. Only with your help can we reach One Billion Happy #onebillionhappy