Marcus Buckingham's Focus on Strengths, Invigorating Moments and Happiness

I had an opportunity to hear Marcus Buckingham, a most engaging and entertaining speaker who has done considerable research on happiness. He has found that there are common traits among successful people regardless of superficial differences.

Positive answers to these five questions are indicators of happy people:

1. How often do things you really like to do?
2. How often do you feel positive before you start your day?
3. How often do you experience an emotional high in life?
4. How often do you get so involved that you lose track of time?
5. How often do you feel invigorated at the end of a long, busy day?

He believes that building on strengths and managing weaknesses is a strong life practice. We get different fulfillment when we focus on who are rather than what we are not. We are frightened by our weaknesses, but shouldn’t fixate on what is wrong. We should fixate on what is working. Ben Franklin said, “A wasted strength is like a sundial in the shade.”

Women now have more domains that ever in which to excel which leads to more stress and can lead to less happiness. Rather than juggling, he has found that happy women create a deliberate imbalance toward invigorating moments in each role. Happy women realize that moments matter. Being creative, celebratory and deliberate about moments that invigorate allows us to draw strength from life.