Younger people tend to associate happiness more with excitement and the future, while older people tend to associate happiness with peacefulness in the present.

Social scientists have found that the fastest way to feel happiness is to practice gratitude.

I do interview senior candidates at the home office or many of our hotel or restaurant General Manager candidates. My two favorite questions are "Tell me about a failure in your career, what you learned from it, and how you've leveraged this lesson" and "All of us are misperceived at one time or another. What's the most common way you're misperceived in the workplace and why?" Both of these questions require a certain amount of self-awareness and a willingness to not give pat, normal answers that we offer experience in interviews.

Many people do not distinguish between something that happens to them and their reaction to it. Yet it isn't the event or situation that holds the emotional charge; it's our beliefs that create our response.

Make curiosity a wonder-ful habit.

Those of us who have been lucky enough to experience a calling in our work have a certain faith and peace of mind that it's exactly when we're supposed to be doing.

I don't know about you, but I've saved cards that old high school flames wrote me as well as those that employees have written me over the years. The power of genuine, customized appreciation will never lose its value, even in a gloomy economy... in fact, it's probably what we're all thirsty for in this desert of a depression.