Do Our Projects Shape Our Personality? with Brian Little

Professor Brian R. Little has been a major innovator in the field of personality assessment and motivation, beginning when he received his Ph.D. in personality psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and most recently he has been the 2020 winner of the Henry A. Murray Award for distinguished research on the study of lives. He is currently a Senior Fellow in Person-Analytics at the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania, and Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is also a widely renowned educator, having received major awards for his teaching at a number of universities, including Harvard where for four consecutive years he was elected a Favorite Professor by his students. Along with Brian’s bestselling books – “Me, Myself and Us: The Science of Personality” and the “Art of Well-Being”; Brian has a very popular TED talk that has been viewed over 20 million times.

In this week's episode, Brian Little shares insights from his innovative research on how our personal projects shape our personality.

Connect with Professor Brian Little:

• http://www.brianrlittle.com

You’ll Learn:

• [03:41] - Brian explains what shapes our personality.
• [06:48] - Brian discusses how personal projects contribute to our personality.
• [08:54] - Brian shares examples of how projects shape personality.
• [12:06] - Brian explains what it is to be ‘authentic’ when it comes to personality.
• [15:40] - Brian discusses how we express ourselves for individual flourishing can impact others.
• [17:50] - Brian describes how our personal project could enhance or compromise our wellbeing.
• [23:43] - Brian introduces us to ‘well-doing’ and the sustainable pursuit of our personal projects.
• [25:00] - Brian shares a tip on how we can better understand each other in the workplace.
• [28:15] - Brian enters the lightning round.

Thanks for listening!

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Think Again by Adam Grant

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to