The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor conveys Happiness doesn't come from success, your success depends on your happiness. Adjust your perspective and notice the positive things that are already there.
Shawn Achor spent twelve years at Harvard University and is a world renowned expert in the connection between happiness and success. He has researched mindset which made the cover of Harvard Business Review. Shawn has presented a TED talk which achieved over 13 million views.
The key concept of the book is that the happiness advantage will give you a performance edge. It's not a coincedence your best work is done when you are happy. A person's competitive advantage is their positivity, it includes showing appreciation and gratitude.
Positivity exercises can include meditation, for example, monks were studied and their pre frontal cortex showed growth. This indicated an increase in the monks happiness.
Credit source: https://andreacollo.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/gonna-feel-happy-in-3-2-1/
There are a number of ways to achieve happiness. Think about something you are looking forward to or think about your next holiday - these thoughts can increase your endorphin levels.
Enhance your performance by enhancing the mindset. The words we use can alter the experience of pain and suffering. We can change the way that we process the world and we can use the brain to experience hope, positivity and joy.
Happiness and a positive mindset leads to true happiness and performance. The more you believe in your ability to succeed the more you will. It is important to train your brain to look for the positive as opposed to the negatives. Understand the mind adopts patterns of the world.
The Tetris effect or Tetris syndrome occurs when people devote a lot of time and attention to an activity that begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images and dreams. It takes its name from the video game Tetris. The negative Tetris effect verse the positive Tetris effect can impact an individuals mindset. Individuals should actively seek positive experiences. One way to direct focus is to write 3 good things that happened the day before (a joke, accomplishment, a connection.) However, for long term effectiveness, consistency is needed. Positive experiences improve the quality of your day and quality in performance.
The author advises individuals to change negative momentum to positive momentum - particularly after a crisis and adversity. There are three potential outcomes. Firstly, your mind produces no change, secondly your mind produces further negativity and thirdly you use adversity and failure to find a better path. Our mind creates alternative scenarios of what just occurred. You have the options of the ones you want to choose.
Success is about pushing yourself up, not falling down but falling up. Gaining control and focussing on little changes helps make greatest improvements. Those who believe they have power over their outcomes have higher achievement, outcomes and success at work. This feeling of control can crumble as we focus on things we can't control. Put your negativite emotions into words as this will help to diminish their power.
Make an effort of the situations you can control and the things you can't. Don't stress about the things you can't control. Focus on what you can control. Think of small successes which add up to major achievements.
Will power alone can not effect change, form good habits such as exercising refer to Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People blog post. Will power is a limited resource and it can be depleted with over use.
Successful people know their social interactions are valuable investments and results in social unity. Social support and happiness are twice as highly correlated than the base line (Harvard Research.)
Leaders should invest in social atmospheres, research from MIT shows employees with strong bonds with managers perform better than weak bonds. Its important to show gratitude by being personal and in front of others.
Into the future - you have the power to share the happiness with the world. Take for example the 'yawning phenomenan' which is contagious. The happiness advantage benefits and spreads throughout our lives. There is a ripple effect because mirror neurons in the brain help you to experience what others are experiencing, thus, the same applies to your mindset.
These ripple effects can be so large and could cause a butterfly effect. By focussing on small changes, you have the power to trigger and positively change the dynamics of a group and the world.
Watch Shawn Achor's video below - Happiness leads to success and in turn this increases business performance. Shawn jokes he can't offer everyone a payrise, but he can show people how to be happy and successful.
You can buy the book here on Amazon
The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance
Research resources: https://www.shawnachor.com/
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