Arianna Huffington’s Post

Something I’ve found to be very true when I look back at my own life!

What project that you started (in real life or in your head) can you complete by dropping?

An amazing performance by Celine Dion tonight at the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. In April, Celine said, "I’ve chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe... I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again!” And she has done it in her own amazing way — the first winner of the 2024 Summer Olympics. #Olympics2024

Mindset makes a difference. Not just in winning or losing, but even when we’re winning. As the Olympics kick off, Linh Ta reports in Axios on a fascinating study about Olympic medalists in which researchers found that silver medalists were actually less happy than bronze medalists, even though they performed better. It’s because of a phenomenon known as “counterfactual thinking, which Andrea Luangrath, a professor at the University of Iowa and a study coauthor, describes as thinking about “what could have been.” Silver medalists are more apt to use “upward comparison” and judge themselves negatively relative to the gold medal winner. Bronze medalists, on the other hand — and the lowest spot on the podium — are making a “downward comparison” and happily thinking, as Luangrath put it, “I’m glad I’m on the podium at all.” And it isn’t just athletes who engage in “second place thoughts,” says Luangrath. “There will always be someone who is faster, smarter, stronger, wealthier. Just revel in the happiness of the moment — and maybe not so much the outcome." The study reminded me of a recent paper by Dr. Kevin Volpp and Alisa Camplin-Warner. Dr. Volpp is a renowned behavioral economist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (and a member of Thrive Global’s scientific advisory board) and Camplin-Warner is a two-time Olympic medalist in skiing. It’s about how to use the lessons of coaching in elite athletics — like goal setting, purpose, measuring success, and learning from failure — to help people improve their health and their lives. As they write, “While achieving Olympic-level performances is not a realistic goal for most people, we argue that achieving the highest possible level in terms of health and health behavior is both high stakes and attainable. In contrast to high-performance sport, in which there is always a limited number of spots on a team or the podium, each of us can attain elite levels of health without any restriction on how many people can achieve success at once.” So no matter how we do, where we are on the podium, or whether we’re on it at all, we should celebrate small wins and enjoy the moment. And now on with the Games. https://lnkd.in/dbtFBmV9 #Olympics2024 #Perspective #Podium #Mindset #Olympics #Competition

Since the day I recorded a podcast with Charli XCX in the Thrive Global office in her pre-brat era in the fall of 2019, she’s been dispensing her own brand of wisdom, which is good advice even if you don’t suddenly find yourself applying for a very important job, like President of the United States. As she says, “on your bad days, give yourself a break because it doesn’t matter that you’re not on your A game all the time.” #Brat #Wisdom #BratSummer #CharliXCX

Happy National Intern Day! Pictured below are Thrive’s summer interns, Sama Albakree, Ainsley Topping, and Samantha Welch! I love the idea of internships, being able to explore different interests and passions and acquiring new schools before you formally enter the workplace. My three tips for internship success (as well as for post-internship life) are: 1) Be a lifelong learner. Internships are a time intensive learning opportunity, but being intentional about cultivating curiosity will serve you well long after the internship ends, including decades later when you’re getting to know the new crop of interns in your office. 2) Don’t listen to the obnoxious roommate in your head. It’s the voice that feeds on putting us down and strengthening our insecurities and doubts. We all live with that voice, but the times it comes out the most is when we’re tired, stressed and run down. That’s when we’re most likely to doubt ourselves, most likely to react emotionally and when our perceptions are at their shakiest. So one of the ways to silence that voice is to take care of ourselves by taking time to recharge. 3) Practice compassionate directness. It’s one of Thrive Global core values — it means speaking up, disagreeing and surfacing problems and pain points in real time. Yes, that might seem challenging for an intern, but most organizations want interns to have positive experiences, so being open about what you need to thrive during your internship can help make that happen. And welcome to Thrive, Ainsley, Sama, and Sam! #NationalInternDay #Internship #Success #Values #Experience

“I have a big heart and always want to help.” I love the spirit of Deb Knopsnider from Walmart Supercenter #1765 in Somerset, PA. After the devastating loss of her husband, Deb found solace and joy in a Microstep of setting aside time for her passion: music. She also started food swaps, like eating oatmeal with blueberries instead of sugary cereal, and stretching every morning, which eventually led to taking up speed walking. Deb’s resilience and dedication to spreading positivity is one of the reasons why she was awarded the $10K Thrive Challenge Grand Champ award. As she said, "A lot of our customers know me and if they’re feeling down, they’ll confide in me. I have a big heart and always want to help." Read more about Deb’s inspiring journey here: https://lnkd.in/gKD5m8ZV #ThriveChallenge #ThriveGlobal #WellBeing #Inspiration #Community #Resilience

We know that our daily behaviors — sleep, food, movement, stress management and connection — have a significant impact on health outcomes. Yes, behavior change is hard. But through hyper-personalization, it’s also something that AI is uniquely positioned to solve. That’s what we’re doing with Thrive AI Health, a new company Thrive Global is launching with the OpenAI Startup Fund to build the Thrive AI Health Coach, with the mission to scale and democratize the life-saving benefits of improving daily habits and address growing health inequities. You can read more about it in a piece by Dr. Sai Balasubramanian, M.D., J.D., in Forbes: https://bit.ly/3WdbUbT

Having friends at work is fun. But did you know it also helps you in other key ways, from being more productive and engaged to being more innovative and creative? And according to a new LinkedIn Workforce Confidence survey, over half of U.S. employees have at least one good friend at work. And the industry that's most likely to have close friendships? Utilities workers. I'd love to know if you have people you genuinely consider friends at work and how it makes a difference! https://lnkd.in/exM97rC8 #Friendship #Work #Productivity

Remote work has allowed a lot of women to join or stay in the workforce. But as Rachel Wolfe and Justin Lahart write in The Wall Street Journal, because of the gender divide in household duties and childcare, women working from home can find themselves doing even more of those duties. As Dartmouth College economics professor Claudia Olivetti said, moms have to ask themselves, “Are you taking on more child care because you have a more flexible job, or did you take a more flexible job because you were already doing most of the child care?” https://lnkd.in/edQuu5iY