How Full Is Your Bucket?

Posted by Michelle Dempsey, Book Specialist on Jul 20th 2016

What is it full of?

How full is your bucket, Positive strategies for work and life, Tom Rath, 9781595620019


Of those things, what is making you happy? 

What adds positivity to your life? 

What did you wish could stop weighing you down?


If you really stopped and did a full audit of your “bucket” on a daily basis, you may be surprised as to the imbalance of emotions that you are carrying around with you each day. This bucket, of course, is the invisible vessel you tote around, that fills up with both positive and negative emotions transferred by interactions with others.

Had a great conversation with an old friend? Instant bucket-filler.

That guy in the brand new Ferrari steal the parking spot you were waiting for at the mall? There goes some happiness, right out of your bucket.

The bucket philosophy is based on the wildly popular NY Times Best Selling book, How Full Is Your Bucket? written by Tom Rath (author of Strengths Finder 2.0) and Donald O. Clifton, PhD. Originally published in 2004, the authors also released an expanded anniversary edition that includes updated research and content and a workbook for individual and team development that is now being used across the globe for both personal and business development.

How Full Is Your Bucket? Anniversary Edition by Tom Rath, Donald O. Clifton, 9781595620033

Based on a simple metaphor, the book features powerful stories, actionable strategies and breakthrough discoveries from a 50-year study that reveals how our lives are shaped by the interactions we have with others. The study even sparked its own new field of psychology called “Positive Psychology.” 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 to formulate and prove the idea that has inspired lasting changes in all who have read the book, with its five strategies for increasing positive emotions.

Let’s face it. With the current state of our world and the amount of negative information being spewed at us, day in and day out, it’s not hard to end our days feeling defeated and questioning how much worse things can get. The anniversary edition of How Full Is Your Bucket comes at a time when we, the collective we, need it most. 

More positivity, less anger. More love, less fighting. More hugs, less hate.

Allow this read, and the book specialists at Bulk Bookstore, to inspire your life and mindset, one drop in the bucket at a time.