From Publishers Weekly
In this brief but significant book, the authors, a grandfather-grandson team, explore how using positive psychology in everyday interactions can dramatically change our lives. Clifton (coauthor of Now, Discover Your Strengths) and Rath suggest that we all have a bucket within us that needs to be filled with positive experiences, such as recognition or praise. When we're negative toward others, we use a dipper to remove from their buckets and diminish their positive outlook. When we treat others in a positive manner, we fill not only their buckets but ours as well. The authors illustrate how this principle works in the areas of business and management, marriage and other personal relationships and in parenting through studies covering a 40-year span, many in association with the Gallup Poll. While acknowledging that most lives have their share of misfortune, the authors also make clear that how misfortune affects individuals depends largely on their level of positive energy and confidence. The authors also underscore that our human interactions provide most of the joys or disappointments we receive from life. The book comes with a unique access code to www.bucketbook.com, which offers a positive impact assessment and drop-shaped note cards that can be used to give praise and recognition to others. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


O, The Oprah Magazine , October, 2004
"This positive give-and-take leads to solid marriages, higher worker satisfaction and productivity, and a happier world."


USA Today, August 30, 2004
"For all the veneer of easygoing pleasantry, this is serious business."


Entrepreneur magazine, September 2004
"50 years of research . . . reveal how positive reinforcement can powerfully boost productivity, satisfaction, and stability in all kinds of organizations."


Ladies’ Home Journal, November, 2004
"Kindness really is contagious."


Selling Power magazine, September, 2004
"Tangible, actionable steps to help turn your workplace into a bustling bastion of positivity and productivity."


Book Description
How did you feel after your last interaction with another person? Did that person-your spouse, best friend, coworker, or even a stranger -fill your bucket" by making you feel more positive? Or did that person "dip from your bucket," leaving you more negative than before? The number one New York Times and number one Business Week bestseller, How Full Is Your Bucket? reveals how even the briefest interactions affect your relationships, productivity, health, and longevity. Organized around a simple metaphor of a dipper and a bucket, and grounded in 50 years of research, this book will show you how to greatly increase the positive moments in your work and your life-while reducing the negative. Filled with discoveries, powerful strategies, and engaging stories, How Full Is Your Bucket? is sure to inspire lasting changes and has all the makings of a timeless classic.


From the Back Cover
PRAISE FOR THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES AND #1 BUSINESSWEEK BESTSELLER, HOW FULL IS YOUR BUCKET? "This slender volume offers an abundance of insights and inspiration. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to dramatically improve their work life and strengthen their relationships." -- Deepak Chopra "An insightful ‘can't put it down' . . . literary gem. . . . Indeed, a winner!" -- Willard Scott, NBC's Today show "A well-researched, strong, and compelling case for improving self-esteem, better relationships, and health . . . this book is a short, sharp, ‘how-to’ guide." -- People Management magazine "Clifton and Rath paint a compelling picture of the good things that happen when people are encouraged, recognized, and praised regularly, as well as the emotional, mental, and sometimes even physical devastation that can occur in the absence of such positive encounters . . . Leaders who want to eliminate or avoid this kind of destruction should make How Full Is Your Bucket? required reading for themselves and their people." -- John C. Maxwell’s Leadership Wired "Useful anecdotes that managers in particular should pay attention to." -- The San Francisco Chronicle "A slim, simple, upbeat volume that manages to be inspirational without preaching (or inducing nausea)." -- The Miami Herald "The Grandfather of Positive Psychology, Don Clifton, and his grandson, Tom Rath, offer illuminating wisdom for fulfilling work and for a meaningful life." -- Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D. Former President of the American Psychological Association and author of the best-selling books Authentic Happiness and Learned Optimism "Wow! This little book is a treasure. It is chock full of wisdom, inspiration, and practical advice, rooted in solid research. It will change the way you look at your life, your work, and the world." -- Martin Walsh Executive Director, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation "Tom Rath and Don Clifton have nailed it. Their positive strategies are immensely powerful." -- Michael W. Morrison, Ph.D. Dean, University of Toyota "The world would be a better place if EVERYONE read it." -- James C. Wright Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives "Powerful, captivating, and easy to read. This book's heartwarming message has a spiritual quality, yet it is grounded in decades of research." -- Lea E. Williams, Ed.D. Executive Director, National African-American Women's Leadership Institute, Inc. "I loved reading this book and highly recommend it. I'm buying copies for those I love and care about the most." -- Paul Higham Former Chief Marketing Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.


About the Author
Tom Rath is co-author of the #1 New York Times and #1 BusinessWeek bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket? — a book that draws on decades of research to explore the differences between leading an enthusiastic life and a miserable one. His book is receiving acclaim worldwide, and appears regularly on the major bestseller lists. At Gallup, Tom is the Global Practice Leader for the organization’s hottest innovation, the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which has helped more than 1 million people around the world discover their top five strengths. Tom earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. He lives in Washington, D.C. Donald O.Clifton, Ph.D. (1924-2003), was cited by the American Psychological Association as the Father of Strengths Psychology and the Grandfather of Positive Psychology. He was a chairman of Gallup, Inc., and he invented the Clifton StrengthsFinder, an assessment that has helped more than 1 million people around the world discover their talents. He coauthored several books, including the bestseller Now, Discover Your Strengths.

SYNOPSIS

Organized around a simple metaphor of a dipper and a bucket, the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full is Your Bucket? shows how even the smallest interactions we have with others every day profoundly affect our relationships, productivity, health, and longevity. Co-author Donald O. Clifton studied the effects of positive and negative emotions for half a century, and he and his colleagues interviewed millions of people around the world. Their discoveries contributed to the emergence of an entirely new field: Positive Psychology. These same discoveries are at the heart of How Full is Your Bucket? Clifton, who also coauthored the bestseller Now, Discover Your Strengths, penned How Full is Your Bucket? with grandson Tom Rath. Written in an engaging, conversational style, their book includes colorful stories, 5 strategies for increasing positive emotions, and features an online test that measures readers' Positive Impact. How Full is Your Bucket? is a quick, breezy read. It will immediately help readers boost the amount of positive emotions in their lives, and in the lives of everyone around them. The book is sure to inspire lasting changes in all who read it, and has all the makings of a timeless classic.

FROM THE CRITICS

Ladies' Home Journal

Kindness really is contagious.

USA Today

For all the veneer of easygoing pleasantry, this is serious business.

The Oprah Magazine O, The Oprah Magazine

(Tom Rath and Don Clifton) drew on Gallup research and millions of interviews to argue that this positive give-and-take leads to solid marriages, higher worker satisfaction and productivity, and a happier world.

Entrepreneur magazine

50 years of research . . . reveal how positive reinforcement can powerfully boost productivity, satisfaction, and stability in all kinds of organizations. Though brief, it's highly specific.

Selling Power magazine

A bucketful of miracles . . . Clifton and Rath offer a prescription for reversing the trend toward negativity currently endemic to the American workplace . . . The lessons contained in How Full Is Your Bucket? provide tangible, actionable steps to help turn your workplace into a bustling bastion of positivity and productivity.Read all 9 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Deepak Chopra

"This slender volume offers an abundance of insights and inspiration. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to dramatically improve their work life and strengthen their relationships. "  — author of the best-selling books The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire

Lea E. Williams

"Powerful, captivating, and easy to read. This book's heartwarming message has a spiritual quality, yet it is grounded in decades of research."  — Ed.D. Executive Director National African-American Women's Leadership Institute, Inc.

Martin Walsh

"Wow! This little book is a treasure. It is chock full of wisdom, inspiration, and practical advice and rooted in solid research. It will change the way you look at your life, your work, and the world."  — Executive Director Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation

Martin E.P. Seligman

"The Grandfather of Positive Psychology, Don Clifton, and his grandson, Tom Rath, offer illuminating wisdom for fulfilling work and meaningful life."  — Ph.D., former President of the American Psychological Association and author of the best-selling books Authentic Happiness and Learned Optimism

"A slim, simple, upbeat volume that manages to be inspirational without preaching (or inducing nausea)." — The Miami Herald

"Useful anecdotes that managers in particular should pay attention to." — The San Francisco Chronicle

Michael W. Morrison

"Tom Rath and Don Clifton have nailed it. Their positive strategies are deceptively simple but immensely powerful in illuminating the pathway to an extraordinary life."  — Ph.D., Dean University of Toyota

Mike Johanns

"If there were a Nobel Prize for building a quality individual, this book deserves it."  — Governor State of Nebraska

Curt W. Coffman

"A very powerful lesson in the understanding of human potential and motivation. If every employee within an organization could read this book and apply its simple message, the enterprise would be transformed overnight."  — coauthor of the New York Times bestseller First Break All the Rules and Follow This Path