12 Life Changing TED Talks You Should Watch
TED Talks are wonderful conferences where some of the most inspiring stories and ideas are shared.
Here is a list of my all-time favorite TED Talks that have had a huge impact on my life and have certainly changed my perspective.
I have also categorized them and while I highly recommend you watch all of them, you can go directly to the one that is most relevant at this particular moment in your life. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
1. Life-Changing TED Talks: Robert Waldinger: What Makes a Good Life?
What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it’s fame and money, you’re not alone – but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you’re mistaken. As the director of 75-year-old study on adult development, Waldinger has unprecedented access to data on true happiness and satisfaction.
2. Life-Changing TED Talks: Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are
Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.
3. Life-Changing TED Talks: Kelly McGonigal: How to Make Stress Your Friend
Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.
4. Life-Changing TED Talks: Tony Robbins: Why We Do What We Do
Tony Robbins discusses the “invisible forces” that make us do what we do., and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.
5. Life-Changing TED Talks: Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability
Brené Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity.
6. Life-Changing TED Talks: Scott Dinsmore: How to Find and Do Work you Love
Scott Dinsmore’s mission is to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing.
7. Life-Changing TED Talks: Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers.
8. Life-Changing TED Talks: Nick Vujicic: Overcoming Hopelessness
Nick talks about the importance of parenting in early childhood and its significance in overcoming hopelessness. Willpower is a driving force for making our big dreams come true, but if we don’t get a miracle in life, we can always be a miracle to someone else.
9. Life-Changing TED Talks: Sean Stephenson: The Prison of Your Mind
Stephenson shared why he believes he was born, and encouraged the inmates to look inside themselves to find out why they were born, and use that knowledge to change the world.
10. Life-Changing TED Talks: Jon Jandai: Life is easy. Why Do We Make It So Hard?
Jon is a farmer from northeastern Thailand. He founded the Pun Pun Center for Self-reliance, an organic farm outside Chiang Mai, with his wife Peggy Reents in 2003. Pun Pun doubles as a center for sustainable living and seed production, aiming to bring indigenous and rare seeds back into use.
11. Life-Changing TED Talks: Tracy McMillan: The Person You Really Need to Marry
Tracy McMillan is a television writer and relationship author who wrote the book Why You’re Not Married…Yet, based on her viral 2011 Huffington Post blog. She also appeared as a dating coach on the NBC reality show Ready For Love.
12. Life-Changing TED Talks: BJ Miller: What Really Matters at the End of Life
At the end of our lives, what do we most wish for? For many, it’s simply comfort, respect, love. BJ Miller is a palliative care physician who thinks deeply about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life for his patients. Take the time to savor this moving talk, which asks big questions about how we think on death and honor life.
Question about this article: Out of all these TED Talks, which one spoke to you the most?
Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
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