Saturday, March 25, 2017
"The happy secret to better work"
I found a great TedTalk by Shawn Achor today that I wanted to share. It is called "The Happy Secret to Better Work," and in it Achor discusses how and why we should reverse the formula in our brains to raise positivity in the present. He explains how many of us are raised to believe that we must work harder in order to be successful, and that once we reach success we will be happy. However, in reality once we reach success we immediately switch to a new goal of success, therefore continuously pushing off happiness. He gave the example of students at Harvard who are thrilled and privileged to be there, but then as soon as school begins the feelings of happiness and success switch to stress. Achor explains that the external world is only 10% predictive of our happiness, and that the remaining majority 90% is the way in which our brain processes the external world. Therefore, it is important to alter your lens in order to seek happiness in the present (or "happiness advantage"). This is known to increase energy, creativity, and productivity. Achor gave a great statistic that, "75% of job successes are predicted by optimism, social support, and the ability to see stress as a challenge not a threat." Achor also gave some ways to try and increase your "happiness advantage": write down three gratitudes, journal something that made you happy in the last 24 hours, exercise, meditate, and take part in random acts of kindness. Slow down and seek happiness in the present, or you will never reach it.
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I'm on the road and can't watch the video right now, but have saved it for later.
ReplyDeleteBased on your description, Achor taps into a line of thinking that has been explored by philosophy and religion for thousands of years. My personal preferred happiness philosophy is Stoicism. I'm a fan in particular of Seneca and recommend his book, "Letters from a Stoic". He was an advisor to the Roman Emperor Nero, and thus one of the most powerful men of his time. And yet he practiced the kind of inward focusing philosophy you describe, recognizing that happiness comes from within. All of the world's major religions share similar teachings.
I was recently listening to a Buddhist teacher talk, and she said that you have to recognize that the emotions are like compass directions. Emotional responses are pre-rational, and help us process and guide our decisions (this finding comes from psychology as well - people who have suffered damage to the parts of the brain that process emotions have great difficulty making decisions). If you think of emotions as a guide, you don't want your emotional compass stuck on happy all the time. That doesn't help you. You need to be able to feel the whole range of emotion in order to guide your choices in life.
I love this! Im really into the power of positivity !
ReplyDeleteI love this too! I am very interested in the power to influence your perception of the world for the better. I personally keep a gratitude journal and try to meditate when I can - it really has improved my perspective on the world. If you're interested in happiness I recommend reading 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' by François Lelord. It's a cute, short book about one man's quest around the world to find happiness. Some of the major themes are similar to what you have posted above! I have a copy of it somewhere if you ever want to borrow it :)
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