Dan Lerner

Is there any part of our lives that COVID-19 hasn’t touched? Whether it’s the way we learn, work, connect with each other, even spend our leisure time—it’s clear that pretty much everything has been transformed in the wake of this pandemic. But the thing that interests performance coach and positive psychologist Dan Lerner the most is the way it’s changing our perspective on something essential: our wellbeing. Drawing on real-life stories and examples that come from his class ‘The Science of Happiness’ at New York University, Lerner explores how we can address the unique challenges of the coronavirus—isolation, low mood, collective loss, financial hardship—while also making room for new opportunities to thrive in this environment. With his signature high-energy brand of storytelling, Lerner offers us simple yet powerful insights as to how we can make sense of this tragedy, maintain hope, and care for ourselves and each other.

Cutting edge science now shows that when we pursue our passions in the correct way, we can realize the highest levels of personal and professional success.

In this talk, Daniel Lerner defines two types of passion: harmonious, and obsessive. When you’re harmoniously passionate, you not only love what you do, but you are more focused, energetic, and productive, and live a far more fulfilling life. Conversely, obsessive passions are marked by a compulsive, dogged pursuit of achievement, leading to guilt, shame, pessimism, unhappiness, and, far too often, early burnout.

Drawing on a diverse cast of iconic cultural figures—from Richard Branson to Ellen DeGeneres, Nelson Mandela to Whitney Houston—Lerner illuminates the difference between healthy and dangerous passions, how and why to ignite, explore, and stoke your healthy ones, and even how to find passion in work that you may have given up as passionless long ago. And if you’ve fallen into patterns of blind obsession, Lerner helps you transition out. Ultimately, this keynote is a fiery, fun, and practical primer on how to live a successfully passionate (and passionately successful!) life.

How can you bring your best self—your intrinsic talents, your truest voice—to all that you do, at work and in life? You work hard, you strive for engagement. But you may still feel your core strengths don’t align with the work you do. You wouldn’t be alone. For too many of us, our best selves—our most creative, unique, and engaged selves—can seem removed from the work we do. That’s a missed opportunity for workers, for leaders, and for companies. How, then, can organizations help employees realize their utmost potential? Enter Dan Lerner, the teacher behind NYU’s ecstatically popular Science of Happiness class. In this bold new talk, Lerner weaves illuminating examples—from Walt Whitman to Beyonce, from Bruce Lee to Richard Branson, from Hamilton to Maya Angelou, from business leaders to his own family—in order to help you rethink success, fulfilment, and the contribution you can make. With each carefully interlocking story, Lerner reveals how personal expression, artistic or otherwise, led to excellence—and how this in turn changed everything around them. Perfect for individuals, teams, and organizations, this unforgettable talk is about what happens when you transcend limitations and embrace—for the benefit and betterment of those around you—your truest potential.

For many students, the college experience has shifted from four years of thriving to a harrowing journey merely to survive. Rates of depression and anxiety among students are skyrocketing, expectations and competition are more intense than ever, and with online distractions and social media providing entirely new obstacles, today’s campus is markedly different from that of yesterday.

Featuring highlights from Daniel Lerner’s popular NYU class “The Science of Happiness” (the largest non-101 at the university), this talk will help students make the best of these crucial four years, both inside and outside of the classroom (and offers parents key tips to helping this happen, as well). Fast-paced, engaging, interactive, and immediately applicable, Lerner shares with audiences how to cultivate greater optimism, resilience, willpower, and better relationships. He also reveals the science behind why positive thinking can lead to better grades, a more satisfying social experience, better levels of performance on the stage, field, and in the classroom, and even higher post-grad salaries.

Touching on key aspects of the post-secondary experience—roommates, dating, diet, work, exercise, sleep, study habits, grit, and passion—this talk will help students and parents understand the habits that can get today’s co-eds out of the mode of merely ‘surviving,’ and into that of ‘thriving’—in both college and beyond. This is the talk graduates wish they could have heard while still in school. With the science of positivity, Lerner is changing the way students see school for good.