The Science of Happiness

I stumbled upon a little gold mine this week.  (It was actually a clip from a TED conference, but that clip has since been taken down.)

Shawn Achor is a Harvard graduate who has been studying and teaching positive psychology for several years.  His research has shown some pretty interesting and applicable truths about what it is that makes us happy and what happens when we are happy.

Check out this little clip:

He has written a book called “The Happiness Advantage” which is now on my list of books to read.  Here are a few of the principles he talks about in the book…

• The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see—and seize—opportunities wherever we look.
• The Zorro Circle: how to channel our efforts on small, manageable goals, to gain the leverage to gradually conquer bigger and bigger ones.
• Social Investment: how to reap the dividends of investing in one of the greatest predictors of success and happiness—our social support network

Here is a full 30 minute lecture he give on some of these ideas:

(not that I expect you to watch them…only if you wanted to see more)

He’s got some great stuff here – stuff that makes a lot of sense.

For me, his research is sufficient even if it only contributed to more happiness in my life, but the research also shows that happiness actually increases productivity and success:

• Doctors put in a positive mood before making a diagnosis show almost three times more intelligence and creativity than doctors in a neutral state, and they make accurate diagnoses 19% faster (Estrada, Isen & Young, 1997).
• Optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 56% (Seligman, 1991).
• Happy workers have higher levels of productivity, produce higher sales, perform better in leadership positions, and receive higher performance ratings and higher pay. They also enjoy more job security and are less likely to take sick days, to quit, or to become burned out (Lyubomirsky, et al., 2005).
• Happy, engaged workers have been shown receive up to 25% higher job performance ratings than their unhappy colleagues, which translates into a better bottom line.  (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203142512.htm)
• For every 100 happy managers, the average company could save nearly $400,000 each year.  (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203142512.htm)
• “On average, business units in the top quartile on the employee engagement produced 1 to 4 percentage points higher profitability. For many organizations in a highly competitive market, 1 to 4 points per business unit is quite substantial and can represent the difference between success and failure (Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2002).”  (http://media.gallup.com/DOCUMENTS/whitePaper–Well-BeingInTheWorkplace.pdf)

In the clip that has since been removed, he gives some very applicable ways to actually retrain your brain for positivity.  Some of those examples were as simple as gratitude journaling and exercising.  Gratitude journaling trains your brain to look for the positive in life and exercise actually teaches your brain that our behaviors matter.  Pretty interesting stuff – definitely going to read the book.  Who doesn’t need a little more happy in their life?

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