The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

Enjoy this book summary of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work by Harvard professor and researcher, Shawn Anchor. I read The Happiness Advantage after I attended the first World Congress of Positive Psychology in Philadelphia. Also part of my dive into  the research and findings of the Positive Psychology trend.  Viewing Achor’s  TedTalk, The Happy Secret to Better Work, was also part of my dive into the research and findings of the Positive Psychology movement. I am only one among nearly 24 million viewers of this dynamic presentation.

Overview of The Happiness Advantage

Achor challenges the I-will-be-happy-when myth.  He proposes that success, including being accepted into your dream university, being hired for your dream job, finding your dream partner, or buying your dream electronic or four-wheeled toy does not lead to your happiness.

He found that many Harvard students thought they’d be happy if and when they got into this prestigious university.  But most students’ pleasure soon waned as they put in place higher expectations for reaching success. They soon told themselves that they would be happy once they graduated with stellar grades. After graduating, the next happiness goal would be their dream job.

Basic Concepts from The Happiness Advantage

Based on Positive Psychology, Achor encourages developing a positive perspective or attitude for increased creativity, engagement, vitality, productivity…and eventually authentic happiness or what I call “basic life satisfaction.”

In a 2011 issue of Psychology Today, Achor’s article 5 Ways to Turn Happiness Into An Advantage, was published.  In it, he wrote:

Every single relationship, business and educational outcome improves when the brain is positive first. If you cultivate happiness while in the midst of your struggles, work, at school, while unemployed or single, you increase your chances of attaining all the goals you are pursuing…including happiness.”

Sean Achor Quotes:

1. “Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost. It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation and ability to accomplish goals.”
2. “Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can.”
3. “Perhaps the most accurate term for happiness, then, is the one Aristotle used: eudaimonia, which translates not directly to “happiness” but to “human flourishing.”
4. “Without action, knowledge is often meaningless. As Aristotle put it, to be excellent we cannot simply think or feel excellent, we must act excellently.”
5. “Without action, knowledge is often meaningless.”
6. “When we encounter an unexpected challenge of threat the only way to save ourselves is to hold on tight to the people around us and not let go.”
7. “When our brains constantly scan for and focus on the positive, we profit from three of the most important tools available to us: happiness, gratitude, and optimism.”
8. “Focusing on the good isn’t just about overcoming our inner grump to see the glass half full. It’s about opening our minds to the ideas and opportunities that will help us be more productive, effective, and successful at work and in life.”
9. “When we are happy—when our mindset and mood are positive—we are smarter, more motivated, and thus more successful. Happiness is the center, and success revolves around it.”
10. “Every second of our own experience has to be measured through a relative and subjective brain. In other words, “reality” is merely our brain’s relative understanding of the world based on where and how we are observing it.”
11. “I started to realize just how much our interpretation of reality changes our experience of that reality.”
12. “Take just five minutes each day to watch your breath go in and out.”
13. “. . . students who were told to think about the happiest day of their lives right before taking a standardized math test outperformed their peers. And people who expressed more positive emotions while negotiating business deals did so more efficiently and successfully than those who were more neutral or negative.”
14. “The person we have the greatest power to change is ourselves.”

Key Practices from The Happiness Advantage

Achor proposes in The Happiness Advantage that achieving happiness requires retraining your thinking to be positive.  Brain workouts are required.  Here are Achor’s exercises for developing positivity.  Do one, two or all them for 21 days in a row.

Five Practices:

1. Write down three new aspects of your life for which you feel grateful for each day. Positive Psychology research indicate this activity will significantly improve your even 6 months later.
2. Spend 2 minutes a day writing a description of one positive experience you had over the past 24 hours. This exercise will help shift your thinking from task-based to meaning based; that is to scan your experiences for meaning instead of to-dos. Anchor writes, “This dramatically increases work happiness.”
3. Exercise for 10 minutes a day. Exercise tells your brain that your behavior is important and can result in more successes through your day.
4. Meditate for 2 minutes–observe your breath go in and out. This will help you get out of the poor habit of multitasking. Achor writes, “Research shows you get multiple tasks done faster if you do them one at a time. It also decreases Stress.”
5. Write one, quick email first thing in the morning thanking or praising a member of your team. This significantly increases your feeling of social support, which in my study at Harvard was the largest predictor of happiness for the students.

Let me know your experience of these five practices from The Happiness Advantage. I will be sure to respond.

Please check out these related posts:

The Top 7 Habits of Light-Hearted People
Book Summary: Learned Optimism
The Keys to Boost Your Attitude of Gratitude