The Happiness Advantage
Book summary : The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
“For me, happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential” - Aristotle
Be happy first! Good things will follow
The chicken or the egg question might be a common one when it comes to happiness. What comes first? Does being happy lead to success or does success lead to happiness? It turns out that starting with happiness leads to all sorts of good things, including improved physical health, a longer life, better employee engagement and financial results.
The book shares a study conducted by analyzing positive sentiments in the daily journals kept by nuns in their 20s. The ones with the most positive content lived almost 10 years longer than the rest of the group. “By age 85, 90% of the happiest quartile of nuns were still alive, compared to only 34% of the least happy quartile.”
In a work context, whenever employees feel a burst of happiness, they are more likely to be creative and innovative and see solutions that might have been missed otherwise. Just one reason to spread happiness to teams to improve results.
Action: Always start with being happy - spread happiness to others
Ways to improve your mood and be happy!
Meditate
Find something to look forward to - put something in the calendar!
Commit Conscious Acts of Kindness - spend a day and commit 5 random acts of kindness
Infuse Positivity Into Your Surroundings - Make time to go outside on a nice day
Exercise
Spend Money (but not on stuff), and ideally on other people!
Exercise a signature strength - whatever this unique strength might be. If help is needed to identify this, try: https://www.viacharacter.org
Train your brain to look for the positives
Rather than always looking for flaws and problems in our lives and jobs, if we train our brains to see the brighter side of life, we’re more likely to find even more positive situations. One way to do this is to practice gratitude.
“Grateful people are more energetic, emotionally intelligent, forgiving, and less likely to be depress, anxious, or lonely. Gratitude has been proven to be a significant cause of positive outcomes.”
Action: Keep a daily journal and list out 3 things you’re most grateful for.
When faced with failure, find the positive path forward
There are three paths outlined in the book when failure strikes. The first path is in light of negative events, make no change. The second path takes you into a negative spiral where you blame yourself for the failure. The third path is what we’re looking for - it leads us from failure or setback to a place where we are even stronger and more capable than before the fall.
Our ability to find the Third Path is the difference between those who are crippled by failure and those who rise above it.
I also really liked the term Post-Traumatic Growth rather than Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the face of failure, it’s hard to find the positives, but it’s important to capture the lessons so that it can become a growth opportunity.
Action: Reflect and analyze failures and look hard for the positive path that can lead to more success
Start small and minimize friction
Changing habits, mindsets, and reaching ambitious goals take time. Start by focusing on small actions which slowly build momentum and snowball into something massive. The key is to focus on the smallest possible scope and take action.
If you’re trying to clean your room, just clean one small area and keep that space clean, eventually you can expand and organize the rest of the room.
If you’re digging out of 7000 emails, just focus on clearing out the emails from today, then work your way back
Make it easy to start the habit, remove as much friction as possible - whether that means putting your running gear on before bed, or putting the guitar in front of your path.
Action: When faced with a seemingly insurmountable goal, take the smallest possible step forward. Minimize friction to help consistently work away at the goal.
The importance of social relationships
It’s no surprise how important positive social relationships are to our well being. If we need further support to boost our social relationships, according to research studies cited in the book, the happiest 10% of individuals are the ones who have strong social relationships.
On the flip side, a 15-year study reports that employees who had a difficult relationship with their boss were 30% more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease.
Action: Invest in social relationships; your happiness depends on it! Equally important, find a good boss - your health and wellbeing depend on it.
Net Take away
Start with happiness and optimism, then look for ways to spread this to others.