As the old saying goes: ‘You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression’. According to one university study*, people make eleven decisions about us in the first seven seconds of contact (“The 7/11 Rule”. They are the following: 1. Education Level 2. Economic Level 3. Perceived Credibility, Believability, Competence and Honesty 4. Trustworthiness 5. Level of Sophistication 6. Sex Role Identification 7. Level of Success 8. Political Background 9. Religious Background 10. Ethnic Background 11. Social/ Professional / Sexual Desirability  (*Source: Michael Solomon, PhD, Psychologist, Chairman, Marketing Department Graduate School of Business, NYU.) And then according to this study the rest of your time is spent finding evidence to prove your original impression of that person, whether that impression is true or not. This study emphasizes the importance of creating good first impressions.  you can learn how to do that… …

While attending the IPPA World Congress this summer I learned a lot.  I took a lot of notes.  Then I promptly forgot a great deal of what I heard.  Why?  Well, I was a little distracted.  We were launching our book, Character Strengths Matter:  How to Live a Full Life, which has been doing really well.  There was a lot of excitement among all the contributors and endorsers and we had a lot of books to get out to them. And I was on the practice committee which had to review 1/2 of the 800 abstracts, so I was busy greeting my committee and thanking them.  But one of my takeaways was Barbara Fredrickson’s new research that people who aim for happiness are actually less happy than those who aim for positivity in their lives.  If you focus on those… …