HOW FULL IS YOUR BUCKET?

Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton, Ph. D.

This book is joint project by Tom Rath and Don Clifton who is the author of Now, Discover Your Strengths aka the father of strength psychology. The theory of dipper and bucket can be summarized as follows,
Everyone has an invisible bucket. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When our bucket is empty we feel awful. Everyone also has an invisible dipper. When we fill other’s buckets with this dipper, our bucket will be filled as well. When we dip from others, we diminish ourselves.
Chapter 1 shows a disease of extreme hopelessness based on the study of American soldiers detained in North Korean POW camps During Korean War. There were no physical abuses necessary. Death rate went up to 38% just by breaking relationship and turning the men against each other. It is quite a surprise to know how big impact negative emotion can have.
According to chapter 2, number one reason people leave their jobs is that they don’t feel appreciated. Not only affecting higher turnover, bad boss could increase the risk of stroke by 33%.
There seems to be magic ratio of positive to negative interactions which is from 3:1 to 13:1. Neither too low nor too high does any good.
It seems that so many people focus filling their bucket by dipping from others these days. Don’t forget to fill other’s bucket.