“This was the best TED Talk ever.”
“My favorite yet!”
“I loved this! It totally spoke to me.”
After a lapse of a few months, I found this morning a slot to share at all-school meeting a TED talk– and when I announced this, the room broke out into genuine applause. This is a very charming and sweet connection I am sharing with my St. Gregory students, one I will miss greatly: our shared “fandom” for TED talks.
After viewing, we had a great ten minute all-school conversation. First we focused upon the content– what is the relationship of happiness and productivity, how do we “filter” our experience, what are the five techniques for developing a positive outlook and happiness attitude, and do we agree with these five?
The five techniques to shift your attitude, enhance your happiness, lift up your filter, and strengthen your productivity:
- Express gratitude daily; deliberately choose to write or say thank you and express appreciation for what you have.
- Journal.
- Meditate.
- Exercise.
- Practice random acts of kindness.
Then we shifted to form: what made this talk so effective. Humor of course was the most important element, but we also discussed the way the presenter himself modeled a positive affect, and the way he used a personal story at the outset to build a sense of connection with his audience.
Take the twelve minutes for viewing this one: It is a very funny talk with a very meaningful message.
21k12 
February 13, 2012 at 10:31 am
Hi Jonathan, your post showed up in my Google Alerts. What an incredible school–where the students and teachers can share TED talks and have a conversation not only about the content but about how to use the information practically to make a more positive world. You and your students are living examples of the “positive outliers” I study. Happiness is a choice, but so is spreading it. Thank you for bringing this research to life and sharing it. Gratefully, Shawn Achor
March 3, 2012 at 8:15 pm
[…] invited me to give this month to a group of women in the community. We then discussed insights on a TED talk we both happened to see about work and happiness, and she shared how she now seeks the positive at […]
October 8, 2012 at 11:36 am
Hi Jonathan, I agree with you one of my favorite ted talks. I am also in the middle of reading the book right now. We need more people like you to share this at our schools, it could make a huge difference.
Since, Shawn commented on this I am also hoping to get his attention here. We are creating the happiest place on the internet with PigJoy.com and using a lot of Shawn’s principles to create the company.
A basic version of the site will be done shortly, you should check it out. Also, Shawn if you saw this post I sent an email to about 12 addresses I thought could be yours and two got through. You can message me back at ryan@pigjoy.com. We would love to get your feedback on it.