I had so much fun doing a program last Thursday, I wanted to share it.
But first a flashback:

I’m 7 or 8 years old, and I’m assigned the chore of cleaning our bathroom sinks. I make a game out of it and do commercials in the mirror. Picture mini-me smiling, holding a can of Ajax and explaining how and why it works . . . 

 
Flash Forward to March 10, 2011:
I’m presenting a workshop on “Why Positive Psychology Matters” with the American Corner* in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. I’m in a library conference room in Cape Coral, Florida – alone except for my laptop.
The forty workshop participants are clustered around the tables at the American Corner in Skopje. We’re connected via technology, but at the last-minute the camera and audio on their end stops working. I spend 45+ minutes talking to my computer screen explaining how and why positive psychology matters; they can see and hear me, but I can’t see or hear them.

Thank goodness, I’d started training for that moment many years before. 🙂

Here’s a link to the American Corner’s Facebook page about the event. (All program photos in my post are courtesy of the fantastic staff at the American Corner in Skopje.)

Oh, and did you know your brain is actually hard-wired for happiness? Let me get some Ajax, and I’ll meet you back here to explain.

*American Corners are English-language resource centers, which provide information on America and English-language materials and programs to the public in foreign countries. There are 400 American Corners worldwide, five in Macedonia.