When someone comes to you to talk about a problem, if you move the conversation on to a discussion of potential solutions, you fuel their creative problem solving abilities on average by 20% - not to mention you make them feel better! You make them smarter and more empowered to tackle challenges.

Michelle Gielan

Too quickly, venting can turn into dumping garbage on the people around us.

Michelle Gielan

venting garbage people

People will often say "You can't change other people." My research shows this societal belief is not only dis-empowering, it is scientifically false.

Michelle Gielan

empowering research people

Too often we forget how powerful we are as individuals to shape how other people see the world. Each one of us constantly broadcasts to other people - whether consciously or unconsciously - verbally or non-verbally - and those messages influence their brain.

Michelle Gielan

powerful brain people

Know that positive change is possible. It might not happen right away, but if you change your broadcast to them, that can have an effect on how they view the world.

Michelle Gielan

views might world

We are all constantly transmitting information to the people around us, and the messages we choose to communicate either create success or hold us all hold back.

Michelle Gielan

information messages people

There is no greater prediction in the research of our levels of happiness than the breadth and depth of our relationships.

Michelle Gielan

levels depth research

People are pulled towards the best in themselves, and spotlighting the right is a much stronger approach than nagging.

Michelle Gielan

nagging stronger people

With technology and over-scheduling, we are forgetting to invest time in simple connective moments with others.

Michelle Gielan

technology simple forget

Being in touch with the problems in the world or our lives is important, but even more important is to focus the brain on what we can do about them.

Michelle Gielan

focus important brain

I recently wanted to exercise more, and instead of trying to remind myself about all the health benefits and designing an effective (but boring) workout routine, I thought of the moments in my life when getting a workout has been the most fun.

Michelle Gielan

workout exercise fun

We change people, but oftentimes we get so focused on the negative people and their influence on us, we forget how powerful we are as positive people to influence others.

Michelle Gielan

powerful people negative

My big "double-aha" moment came while anchoring the national news at CBS News. It was at the height of the recession, and on top of the usual negative stories, my newscasts became full of especially heart wrenching stories of people losing their homes, jobs, and retirement savings. Starting the morning off like that could leave even the most optimistic person feeling helpless and hopeless. The lightning bolt came when we changed how we talked about the negative.

Michelle Gielan

morning retirement jobs

Social comparison that leads to unhappiness is the downside of social media.

Michelle Gielan

unhappiness media social

Even five minute meaningful conversations with other people not only fuel us in the moment but also build up a reserve of social capital so that when hard times strike, we can draw down on that bank account.

Michelle Gielan

hard-times meaningful people

I realized there was a better way to broadcast the news that empowered people to believe they could overcome challenges.

Michelle Gielan

challenges believe people

Surfing the web often comes at the cost of face-to-face time with friends and family.

Michelle Gielan

family-and-friends surfing cost

There is a compelling case showing us that we actually change people all the time. And when we fully realize this, we start to see how powerful we are to get others unstuck, see that their behavior matters, and start taking steps to create happiness and success in their lives.

Michelle Gielan

powerful matter people

Following celebrities or people you don't regularly see in person often doesn't add to our happiness. The best use of social media is to deepen existing close relationships or create new ones.

Michelle Gielan

media add people

For me, I love dancing!

Michelle Gielan

dancing

Instead of running from the negative, I've started running towards the positive.

Michelle Gielan

running negative