Wanting a more positive environment isn’t enough. You need to do something, and it doesn’t require a great deal of effort or some huge change in the way you approach things at work.

Every day, I read about new ideas and research that could help someone I care about live a longer and healthier life.

Instead of celebrating what makes each child unique, most parents push their children to “fit in” so that they don’t “stick out.” This unwittingly stomps out individuality and encourages conformity, despite these parents’ good intentions

The quickest way to be a little bit happier and more engaged in your job is to spend some time thinking about developing closer friendships.

Having fewer unhealthy days and, in turn, more days when you have the energy to get things done is probably the global constant through which businesses and individuals can think about the quantifiable upside of...

Followers need to see how things will get better and what that future might look like. Leaders need to build that foundation of stability, and hope sits on top of that.

I think trust is primarily built through relationships, and it’s important because it’s the foundational currency that a leader has with his team or his followers.

What we’ve learned is that if you can make the right decision in the supermarket aisle, it’s a heck of a lot easier to make a good decision when you reach in your cupboard when...

Exercise is not enough. Working out three times a week is not enough. Being active throughout the day is what keeps you healthy.

Employees who report receiving recognition and praise within the last seven days show increased productivity, get higher scores from customers, and have better safety records. They’re just more engaged at work.

The reality is that a person who has always struggled with numbers is unlikely to be a great accountant or statistician.

I first found out I had cancer on my eye and lost an eye to this disease when I was 16, and I’ve since had cancer in my kidneys and pancreas and a host of...

Friendships are among the most fundamental of human needs.

Executives must place a priority on wellbeing if they want to attract the right people, keep their best people, and drive their company’s financial performance.

If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything.

We engineered activity out of our lives in the name of convenience. We created foods that put fried, fatty, sweet, and salty ahead of fresh, natural, and healthy. We quickly sacrifice sleep to work longer...

It’s tempting to work more than 60 hours a week and sacrifice sleep, not move, and eat bad foods as they are convenient. But this comes with a cost.

Ignoring negative things that need to be changed is destructive and does nothing to alleviate negativity. Instead, we should focus on the way we’re treating other people in our brief interactions with them.

The vast knowledge we have to prevent cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses is staggering.

I’m a researcher, so I’m realistic that there’s nothing I’m doing that’s going to prevent me from getting cancer in the future. But I can slow it down.

Clearly, there aren’t enough positive moments or interactions happening in the workplace. As a result, our economy suffers, companies suffer, and individual relationships suffer.

I’ve seen so many people – loved ones and colleagues – who jump from one diet to the next, one exercise regimen to the next . I was trying to figure out what were some...

Although individuals need not be well-rounded, teams should be.

When we look at what has the strongest statistical relationship to overall evaluation of your life, the first one is your career well-being, or the mission, purpose and meaning of what you’re doing when you...

Most people perceive their occupation as being a detriment to their overall wellbeing.

Making better choices takes work. There is a daily give and take, but it is worth the effort.

When I speak with people who love their jobs and have vital friendships at work, they always talk about how their workgroup is like a family.

I’ve spoken with a few employers who have moved away from what has to be some of the least attractive language you could use about health risk to start talking about wellbeing.

People who say they have a best friend at work are seven times as likely to be engaged in what they’re doing. And if they don’t have a best friend at work, the odds of...

If a school makes an effort to provide kids the right foods and help them to be more active, this benefits the student and the family’s health. If you embark on a program to improve...

Perhaps the ultimate test of a leader is not what you are able to do in the here and now – but instead what continues to grow long after you’re gone

I’ve seen the same thing emerge in the research around the interaction of sleeping and moving and eating: if you get a good night’s sleep, you are significantly more likely to make the right choices...

Washington is not a city that takes great pride in being a healthy place, necessarily. Now, I have no data. That’s just my own observation.

If my colleagues stop eating donuts and are more active, it saves me money on next year’s insurance premium, and I get to work with people who have more energy and creativity each day. Yet...

Even though people spend more of their waking hours at work than anywhere else, people underestimate how work influences their overall wellbeing and daily experience.

Make it easier to do things that increase your wellbeing before you have to make a choice because a lot of our choices, though they seem small in the moment, have a big effect.

I act as if my life depends on each decision. Because it does.

Regardless of your age, you can make better choices in the moment. Small decisions – about how you eat, move, and sleep each day – count more than you think. As I have learned from...

What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths – and can call on the right strength at the right time.

The most important thing executives can do is send a very clear message to their employees that they care about each person’s overall wellbeing and that they want to be a part of helping it...

What works for one person’s needs is almost always very different from the next.

When we asked people if they would rather have a best friend at work or a 10% pay raise, having a friend clearly won.

No matter how healthy you are today, you can take specific actions to have more energy and live longer.

People with high levels of wellbeing have been careful to work out early in the morning and not to have heavy meals throughout the day because you kind of fall off a cliff in terms...

Positive defaults protect you from yourself – and that helps you to make decisions in the moment that are better for your long-term interests.

There is certainly some predisposition to wellbeing, based on the research I’ve looked at. There are people who have a lot more natural discipline. But for most of us, it takes a lot more in...

followers have a very clear picture of what they want and need from the most influential leaders in their lives: trust, compassion, stability, and hope

Figure out what you really love doing and use your strengths on a daily basis.

When I was in kindergarten, I entered a competition and read 52 books in a week.

Don’t worry about breaks every 20 minutes ruining your focus on a task. Contrary to what I might have guessed, taking regular breaks from mental tasks actually improves your creativity and productivity. Skipping breaks, on...