Once in a leadership class, I made casual mention of a TED Talk by Shawn Achor called The Happy Secret to Better Work.
Some months later, someone sent me an email thanking me for teaching about happiness. She went on to share all the positive impacts I’d had on her life since then. What?! I checked through the agenda of the class she attended, racking my brains to figure out what I’d said that caused this growth.
I realized it was all due to a minor mention of this one TED Talk, which she then went on to watch, and then buy the book and then make all these changes to her life.
In all the work you are doing in your life, make sure you leave a little time and space for happiness. This video is a great start. It’ll make you laugh while it gives you a few tips to increase your happiness.
What Achor found is that 90% of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world. 75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat i.e. being in a growth mindset.
He says we have to reverse the formula for success which says: “If I work harder, I’ll be more successful. And if I’m more successful, then I’ll be happier.” Wrong! This has only served to push happiness over the cognitive horizon.
A happiness advantage, as Achor calls it, is that your brain at positive, performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed, and, when we can get our brain at positive, every single business outcome improves.
Try this ONE thing
Firstly, listen to this 12-minute talk. Secondly, get your brain to be positive in the present.
Not sure how? Stayed tuned while I finish my certification on Positive Intelligence, PQ. I just shared it with my Create Your Ideal Job (click link to find out more and join the waitlist) class and they loved it. You will too, I know it.
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