The Happiness Advantage

Shawn Achor

• happiness first than success not the other way around!

• why just be average?!

• the correct social support needed

7 Principles:
1. The happiness advantage
2. The fulcrum and lever
3. Tetris effect
4. Falling up
5. Zorro circle
6. 20 sec rule
7. Social investment

Principle 1: Happiness Advantage

• bring positivity to life and see better outcome — happy in the now, success later

• positive emotions = less physical stress and anxiety = undoing effect

• happiness is not a mood it’s a work ethic

• mediate: bring mind back and focus on breathing

• find something to look forward to: anticipation factor

• commit conscious act of kindness: giving must be deliberate

• infuse positivity in your surroundings: get outside, find positive meaning in everyday life

• exercise: big mood builder

• spend money: do things rather than have things = more meaningful and lasting

• exercise a strength: use your skills and talents — strength of character

• recognition and encouragement is key

• positive tone and facial expression when interacting, it can bring forth positive vibes but staying true to yourself

• 3 positive to 1 negative, try to get in as much positive to counter that negative

Principle 2: The Fulcrum and The Lever

• we can change the way we process the world — our power to maximize our potential is based on 2 important things:
  1. Length of lever - how much potential power and possibility we believe to have
  2. Position of fulcrum - mindset with which we generate power to change

• we want to move the fulcrum towards a positive mindset = power

• ‘reality’ is our brain’s relative understanding of the world based on where and how we are observing it

• we can always change this perspective = change our experience of the world

• depending on the mindset we experience objective reality of time differently

• the mental construction of our daily activities, more than the activity itself, defines our reality

• never a ‘waste of time’ must be able to conceive every moment a chance to learn and better yourself and others, truly connect

• the more we believe in our own ability, the more likely it will

• growth vs fixed mindset, believe in our power to change

• job vs career vs calling : job = work as a chore, paycheck is the reward. Career = work as investment and want to do well. Calling = work as an end, feels that work is contributing to greater good and purpose — our mindset dictates what we want and what is meaningful

• must find meaning behind your actions — leaders view each interaction as an opportunity to prime others for excellence

• when our belief in another person’s potential brings that potential to life — stop thinking of the world as fixed !

Principle 3: The Tetris Effect

• getting stuck in patterns of viewing the world, way we see the world — start to scan for the positives = happiness

• need to compartmentalize abilities of work skills and social life

• we tend to miss what we are not looking for, that is why when we are looking for something we tend to see it everywhere

• it’s about the change in focus — creating patterns looking for the positives and opportunities to grow

• 3 tools: happiness, gratitude, optimism

• more opportunities for positivity = more grateful, than more energy. Optimism then stay more engaged to goals

• expecting positive outcomes actually makes them more likely to arise

• predictive encoding = priming yourself to expect a favourable outcome actually encodes your brain to recognize the outcome when it arise

• still need to understand the problems

• see the world through rose-tinted glasses = reasonable optimist

Principle 4: Falling Up

• 3 mental paths:
  1. Keeps circling around where you currently are
  2. Leads you toward further negative consequences
  3. Leads to failure or setback to a place where we are even stronger and more capable than before

• failure is an opportunity for growth, if we convince ourselves a fall is the worst, then it will be just that

• “we are not imprisoned by our circumstances, setbacks, history, mistakes, or defeats, we are freed by our choices”

• post traumatic growth: great suffering or trauma can actually lead to great positive change across a wide range of experiences

• people who can most successfully get themselves up off the mat are those who define themselves not by what has happened to them but by what they can make out of what has happened.

• “things do not necessarily happen for the best, but some people are able to make the best out of things that happen”

• we can only learn to deal with failure by actually experiencing failure by living through it

• you’re never helpless, always can make a change and action

• when people meet adversity, they either simply stop looking for ways to turn failures into opportunities. Others, it’s not about the adversity but what we do with it that determines our fate

• the best leaders are the ones who show their true colours not during banner years but during such time of struggle

• crises can be the catalysts for creativity

• counterfact — alternate scenario our brains create to help us evaluate and make sense of what really happened

• we want positive counterfacts = motivation

• explanatory style — how we choose to explain the nature of past events — belief directly affect their actions — adversity into opportunities

• ABCD = Adversity, Belief, Consequence, Disputation
  — adversity = event we can’t change
  — belief = reaction to event, why it happened and what it means for future
  — consequence = depends on our belief
  — disputation = telling ourselves it’s just a belief not a fact then disputing it

• things are not as bad as they seem

• our fear of consequences is always worse than the consequences itself

Principle 5: The Zorro Circle

• ‘internal locus of control’ = belief that their actions have a direct effect on their outcomes

• people who believe that their power lies within their circle have higher achievement and much happier

• jerk vs thinker - fight or flight vs think and react

• it’s about self awareness, how we are feeling - express it then see what you can control and what you can’t

• you can’t sprint your way to a marathon

• start with your small circle - kaizen

• small successes can add up to major achievements. All it takes is drawing that first circle in the sand

Principle 6: The 20 Second Rule

• Common sense is NOT common action

• to be excellent we cannot simply think or feel excellent, we must act excellent

• humans are mere bundles of habits

• habits are automatic that we rarely stop and think about, don’t have to make a conscious choice — turning our desired action into a habit

• habit forms because our brain actually changes in response to frequent practice

• “cells that fire together, wire together”

• stronger the link the faster the message can travel down the pathway

• can’t rely on willpower power, changing and overturning ingrained life habits is difficulty

• willpower weakens the more we use it, that’s why we usually go back to our most comfortable path

• distractions are easier than ever to access, path of least resistance

• lower the activation energy for habits you want to adopt and raise it for the ones you want to avoid

• 20s rule = lowering the barrier by 20s can make a major difference

• less energy it takes to kick start a positive habit the more likely that habit will stick

• sometimes you must set rules for yourself to follow through with a habit

Principle 7: Social Investment

• don’t need to be collapsing to have social support, always there — hold tight to our social support, invest in others

• our relationship with other people matter more than anything else in the world

• we feel a greater sense of purpose when we have others with us — one characteristic that creates happiness is social relationships

• people able to thrive with social connection — social connections motivate, people love what they did with who they did it with

• high quality connections = greater sense of vitality

• commit to a positive social bond with others, you are investing in yourself and others

• every time you cross paths with someone there is an opportunity for high quality connections — eye contact is key

• to maximize the value that one gets from a relationship, one has to give a great deal

• sharing upbeat news to someone = capitalization helps multiply benefits of positive events — how we respond

• active and constructive, enthusiastic support with specific comments and questions

• active listening will create the connection

The Ripple Effect

• positive effects start to ripple outward — these principles become a trigger for the others

• when we are in positive change of our own lives it ripples in 3 degrees, direct and indirect

• smile more it’s proven to be contagious, smile often

• mirror neurons: brain cells that can sense and mimic the feelings, actions and physical sensations

• copied feelings often lead to copied actions

• worries the same with emotions, amygdala can read and identify emotion in another persons face in 33millisec, to make us feel the same

• facial feedback hypothesis = once people mimic physical behaviour tied to these emotions it can cause them to feel the emotions

• the happier everyone is around the happier you will become and vice versa

• only takes one person to make a change to happiness

• more genuinely expressive someone is, more their mindset and feelings spread

• look into people eyes more often to strengthen relationships

• lead by example by being positive yourself first — one small change can trigger a cascade of bigger ones

• it’s not just our own individual success that orbits around our happiness, impact to others!