Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection
How to use storytelling to connect with others
The psychology behind storytelling
How to craft compelling stories
7. Remember the essential goodness of humanity.
After her mother who was a Cancer patient Latham started collecting stories of human kindness from all 50 states, staying with strangers along the way. She is compiling a book that she hopes to place in hospital waiting rooms. “There is an unfathomable amount of kindness that I have seen,” she says, “and when we put our fears aside, when we connect to strangers, when we smile at the people next to us or put away our judgments, it opens up a door into an entirely different way of life.”
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MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Be Hopeful
We all go through times when we see the world through cloudy-colored glasses. Times when it’s tempting to just climb into bed — or bathtub — and hide out, maybe for up to a month.
Fortunately for your loved ones, your livelihood and your life, we’ve gathered together e...
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“In our age of increasing distractions, it’s more important than ever to find ways to maintain perspective, and remember that life is brief and tender.”
CHANG
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“Optimism changes subjective reality. The way we expect the world to be changes the way we see it. But it also changes objective reality. It acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
TALI SHAROT
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3. Look for meaning in the most challenging moments.
For some, pessimism is not a passing inclination but a near-constant outlook shaped by difficult, maybe brutal times.
“Avoidance and endurance can be the entryway to forging meaning,” says Andrew Solomon .
Solomon transformed a childhood marked by bullying...
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“You need to take the traumas and make them part of who you’ve come to be, and you need to fold the worst events of your life into a narrative of triumph, evincing a better self in response to things that hurt.”
ANDREW SOLOMON
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6. Add some wow to your world.
It may seem wrong to stay cheerful in the face of the many big problems confronting us.
Think for a moment about the practical know-how, creativity, teamwork and just plain gumption that made the idea a reality — and know that world-changing ideas are being hatched all arou...
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“I will always be safe from the random hurricanes of outcome as long as I never forget where I rightfully live,”
ELIZABETH GILBERT
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5. Return to your home base.
Does your discouragement stem from being knocked down one too many times? Writer Elizabeth Gilbert knows what that’s like. After the blockbuster success of her memoir ...
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8. Think about your death (yes, really).
After someone close to her passed away, Chang was inspired to transform an abandoned home in her city of New Orleans into a giant chalkboard with a single fill-in-the-blank sentence: “Before I die I want to ___.”
As people completed the sentence with answers like the wall changed from a n...
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2. Recognize that you can change your life at any point.
Do you feel like it’s hard to be look forward to the future because it seems all too predictable?
- Choice #1: resign yourself to the inevitable
- Choice #2: open yourself up to the possibilities that exist for everyone, at every age.
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1. Shift your expectations.
At times, it can seem impossible to stay optimistic in the face of the day’s headlines.
When you wake up and think it’s going to be a blah day, you’re helping set yourself up to have just such a day. So the next time you catch yourself making a gloomy prediction, first con...
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4. Listen to another person’s story.
When you’re feeling down, it can help to get out of your own head.
This week, make it a point to ask someone — a family member, friend or even a stranger — to tell you a story about a meaningful time in their life. Listen deeply and intentionally.
When you hear a stor...
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CURATED FROM
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How to be more hopeful : The ideas of 8 Ted speakers.
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