Just before I went on vacation, I read a book called The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor. I love reading books on leadership and personal development, and I always have a backlog of about 5 books ready to go when I finish the previous one. But The Happiness Advantage was not on my list. My wife actually got it from her boss. Once she finished reading it, I picked it up…and I could not put it down.
The Happiness Advantage centers on The 7 Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. I really though this was just going to be study after study of random research. But Anchor is a great story teller. He took research, his own life experience, and created a framework for being positive and, maybe just as important, spreading that positivity. I also enjoyed that this was not solely for your personal life, but also your day-to-day work or professional life.
And about halfway through reading the 7 Principles Achor outlines, I knew I wanted to document it and start implementing them. So not only are these principles in my own life purpose playbook, but I wanted to help others by writing this blog post.
Now, a warning. If you plan on reading this book soon, maybe you should read it before reading my blog post, as I don’t want to ruin any surprises.
I’ll outline the 7 Principles from the book, and try to give my own story around them as well.
Principle 1: The Happiness Advantage
The first principle talks about ways we can improve our moods and raise our levels of happiness throughout the day. These are helpful to always keep in mind, as they are proven to raise serotonin levels, known as the happy chemical.
- Meditation: this is something that I’ve been committed to for the last 10 months or so. It’s still not easy for me to just relax and let go and focus on breathing. But I’ve become better at it the more I practice it. I try and do it at least 4-5 times per week. I am currently using the guided meditation free Headspace app. It’s really good for beginners. I’ve also been reading articles on mediation and self reflection. How you tried meditation yet? Here’s a great beginners guide to meditation and here’s some additional reading on self reflection, which can be another powerful tool
- Find Something to Look Forward to: For me, I use travel, vacations, or weekend getaways as my reward.
- Commit Conscious Acts of Kindness: the author suggests to try this – pick a day, and commit to 5 acts of kindness, and do these deliberately and consciously. The other day I was at Starbucks, and there was a lady who had just ordered 2 cups of coffee, but her baby was sleeping in a car seat. She asked for a tray and I asked her if she needed help to the car. She said that would be great. After doing that act of kindness, I felt so good, and my day kept getting better. Just a small thing can change not only your own day, but someone else’s.
- Infuse Positivity Into Your Surroundings: Think of your office. Do you have pictures that make you smile? With pictures of my family and Luca (my little boy) and Diego (my little bunny) in my office, I can’t go very long without smiling if and when I need that jolt. Nice outside? Some other things that can help: go for a 20-minute walk, listen to music, watch a motivational video, read a great book on empowerment.
- Exercise: physical activity can boost your mood, reduce stress, and lessen anxiety. I workout first thing in the morning, almost every day. Why? Because working out is likely going to be my greatest physical challenge and mental obstacle for the day, so if I push myself hard at the gym, or by running, that early in the morning, I am ready to meet and overcome any challenges that come my way, easier than if I hadn’t exercised.
- Spend Money (but Not on Stuff): I was happy when I first read this part. And then I read the “but not on stuff” part. Dop! As the author notes: “Contrary to the popular saying, money can buy happiness, but only if used to do things as opposed to simply having things. Why? Because when you buy something – a car, a new pair of jeans, a new watch – while you get an initial high, these feelings are fleeting. Researches found that when you spend money on activities or experiences (going our for supper with friends, going to a concert, going on a trip with family), you are actually happier, and it lasts longer. Also, the book notes that spending money on other people, called “prosocial spending” also boosts happiness. I recently got a birthday gift from a friend and work colleague. I used the gift card to buy something for her as well. And I know it made me feel really good. The book suggests to track your purchases over a month, and see if you are spending more money on things or experiences. If your column adds up to having more things, you may want to move that needle into doing more of things.
- Exercise a Signature Strength: use the skills you’re good at, more often, to feel better about yourselves. Each time you use a skill you’re already good at, you get a burst of positivity. But even more fulfilling than a skill, is exercising a strength of character, states Achor. There’s a free survey you can take by The VIA Institute on Character. It will help you better understand your strengths. One of mine is an intense passion for learning (hence my goals of reading 2 books per month), and also helping/mentoring people, even those I only know virtually through LinkedIn. Check out some of my 2019 goals and resolutions.
In closing about the first principle, Achor says: “As you integrate these happiness exercises into your daily life, you’ll not only start to feel better, but you’ll also start to notice how your enhanced positivity makes you more efficient, motivated, and productive, and opens up opportunities for greater achievement.” And if you’re happy and positive, you now have the ability to make those around you, your colleagues, team members, family, friends, etc, happier as well.
And for those doubting the effects of positivity on an entire team, there’s something called The Losada Line. Psychologist and Business Consultant Marcial Losada did mathematical modeling and she came up with a ratio of 2.9013, called the Losada Line. It is the ratio of positive to negative interactions necessary to make a corporate team successful. So it takes on average 3 positive comments, experiences, expressions, etc, to counteract 1 negative comment, feeling, expression. Further research suggests that a ratio of 6 to 1 has teams producing their very best work.
Principle 2: The Fulcrum and the Lever
Alerting your mindset can alter your accomplishments. There’s something called the Pygmalion Effect: when our belief in another person’s potential brings that potential to life. “This is a shining example of a self-fulfilling prophecy: People act as we expect them to act, which means that a leader’s expectations about what he thinks will motivate his employees often end up coming true,” said Achor.
He goes on to say: “…Remember that the power to affect results rests not just in who’s on your team, but how you leverage your team. Every Monday, ask yourself these 3 questions:
- Do I believe that the intelligence and skills of my employees are not fixed, but can be improved with effort?
- Do I believe that my employees want to make that effort, just as they want to find meaning and fulfilment in their jobs?
- How am I conveying these beliefs in my daily words and actions?”
Change is possible. And what is the limit on your potential? Why impose one? Potential is not fixed.
Principle 3: The Tetris Effect
There’s a selective attention video that become famous years ago. In it, people are passing a basketball around, and you need to count the passes they make. If you’ve watched the video for the first time, did you see a gorilla pass by? 46% of people seeing this video the first time in a study done by researches, missed the gorilla.
Close your eyes and think of the car you want to buy. Really imagine it. Over the next few days and weeks, you’re surely going to be seeing these a lot more on the road (hello, Jaguar F-Pace).
Think of sunshine – some people find it too hot, and some find it perfect. Well what the positive Tetris Effect tries to do is finding a way to create positives in every situation. So rather than searching for roadblocks, our mind will look for opportunities and innovation
“When our brains constantly scan for and focus on the positive, we profit from 3 of the most important tools available to us: happiness, gratitude, and optimism,” writes Achor.
Consistently grateful people, for example, are more energetic, emotionally intelligent, forgiving, and less likely to experience depression, anxiety, or loneliness
Optimism is a tremendously powerful predictor of work performance. Makes sense, right? Optimists set more goals (and more difficult goals) than pessimists, and are likely afforded more opportunities to succeed. When you’re optimistic, stressful situations are also handled better.
The best way to kick start this: make a daily list of the good things in your job, your career, your life, etc. I started doing this daily routine in October 2018, and it’s been helpful in so many ways.
One study found that participants who wrote down three good things each day for a week were happier and less depressed at the 1, 3 and 6-month marks following the study.
Principle 4: Falling Up
Studies show that if we are able to view failure and falling down as an opportunity for growth, we are way more likely to experience actual growth.
Professor and Psychologist Tal Ben-Sharah says “things do not necessarily happen for the best, but some people are able to make the best out of things that happen.” Well said sir.
I love this story that Achor told (not sure if it’s a fable or truth): but 2 shoe salesmen were sent to Africa in the 1900s looking to see if there was a business opportunity. One shoe salesman wired a telegram back to his boss saying: “situation hopeless. They don’t wear shoes.” The other shoe salesman sent back: “Glorious opportunity! They don’t have any shoes yet.” Do you see yourself in any of those? Do you see your boss? Some members of your team?
It’s really what happens after we face adversity, challenges, and disappointment that determines our fate. Some will go backwards, others will stay the same, and the successful ones will use it to grow, or find opportunity.
I’ll briefly sum up a story Achor presented in terms of how you view situations: there are 50 people in a bank. A robber walks in and fires his weapon. You are shot in the right arm. You are the only one shot. Do you consider yourself lucky or unlucky?
Now, I am a pretty optimistic person. But when I read that, I would think I was unlucky, as I assume the majority reading this would. And for this exercise, generally 70% of people will say they were unlucky. But the 30% that said they were lucky obviously look at the positives: they weren’t killed, they get to live another day, no one else was hurt, etc. Powerful mindset, isn’t it?
I absolutely love how Achor ends this Chapter on Falling Up: “Success is about more than simple resilience. It’s about using that downward momentum to propel ourselves in the opposite direction. It’s about capitalizing on setbacks and adversity to become even happier, even more motivated, and even more successful. It’s not falling down, it’s falling up.”
I’ll take a dose of that medication please! Beautifully written, motivating words.
Principle 5: The Zorro Circle
When we believe we are successful, one of the beliefs is because we are in control. Think about your career for a moment. If you are supremely talented, work hard, are in a growing industry, then you likely feel like you have a good control over your future. However, whether you feel like you have control or not, once a day starts to spiral out of your control, with back-to-back-to back meetings, a pile of unread emails, work that you’re behind in, and you still have to do groceries on your way home, feelings of control will be out the window.
Principle 5, The Zorro Circle, is based on small, incremental improvements, or small, manageable goals (tackle one email at a time, rather than responding to emails during meetings and at the same time, ordering groceries online to pick up after work. Sometimes, multi-tasking could be hurtful). And the more you manage those goals and achieve them, the larger your “circle” will expand, gradually conquering a larger area.
Athletes are really good at having control over their performance. The way they train, the food they eat, the sleep they get. They believe they are in control of the outcome. Imagine the greatest teams who believe that regardless of their opponent, they still believe they can win. I’d bet on them!
The book states that research shows that people who believe they control their circle have higher academic and career achievement and are also way happier at work. To repeat that, it’s actually the belief that matters, how much control we think we have over our days.
We can simplify this even more: if you feel and act young, you’ll likely age well and feel good about it. Again, the aging process happens in parallel, but the belief is really important for how one actually feels.
So how do you gain control over your life?
Achor says the first goal we need to conquer – or circle that needs to be drawn – is self awareness. Writing in a journal, doing meditation, consciously self reflecting, these are all ways you can improve on self-awareness if it’s a struggle for you.
The next goal, according to Achor, is to understand which aspects of a situation you have control over and which you don’t. Focus your energy and effort on what you can control. Easier said then done, I know. But that’s important. We all know we can’t control the weather, so how much time do you want to waste complaining about it? We know we can change our diet or workout habits anytime. So focus on the things that are in your control.
Even make a list of the things that are in your control, and those that aren’t. Then take the list of things that you can control, and start putting your effort into one of them – make a plan, jot down some gaols that can help you attain that feeling. Start winning your day by controlling and mastering things that you control. Grow your circle.
“Small successes can add up to major achievements,” writes Achor. “All it takes is drawing that first circle in the sand.”
Principle 6: The 20-Second Rule
“It is precisely because habits are so automatic that we rarely stop and think about the enormous role they play in shaping our behaviour, and in fact, our lives,” writes Achor.
Putting on clothes, brushing your teeth, driving to and form work, they all require very minimal thinking.
He tells the story of understanding that common wisdom stated that it took 21 days for habit to form. So he made a spreadsheeted with 21 columns and he figured by the end of 3 weeks, he’d be able to play the guitar amazingly well. He made it to only 4 total check marks. He attributed it to the fact his guitar was sitting in a closet, more than 20 seconds away for the roadblock he hit. The path of least resistance, right? When he took the guitar out of the closet and put it next to his bed, he had 21 check marks at the end of that trial period. He said when he put the desired behaviour on the path of least resistance, it took less energy and effort to pick up and practice the guitar. Lowering the barrier to change by just 20 seconds was all it took for him.
“The reason willpower is so ineffective at sustaining change is that the more we use it, the more worn-out it gets,” says Achor.
Think of dieting. How I treat diet is a way of life. I don’t treat it as a fad. So for me, staying away from cookies or cake is easy. Because I try to eat well for at least 320 days of the 365 days in a year, so I’m ok to indulge in some savoury sweets or a cheat meals every so often. But it’s usually easy for me to steer clear of them.
If you are finding your day is getting out of control because of email, for example, and preventing real work, he suggests to close your Email while you do so, eliminating distraction. If your homepage when you open up your browser is Facebook or CNN, maybe change that and simply make it the Google homepage so you don’t lose time.
He ended Principle 6 by discussing a topic near and dear to many of us, the love/hate we have with exercise. He wanted to get into exercise and make it part of his life.
If you have a workout plan for the next day, take out your gym clothes the night before, prepare your breakfast shake the night before, you have no excuse not to go, because you just removed potential excuses (what should I wear to the gym? What should I work on?). For Achor, you know what he did? He actually slept in his gym clothes, so he would have no excuse to head to the gym once his alarm went off. He just had to put his gym shoes on and head out the door. What are your barriers to exercise? Can you eliminate them?
Rules are also very important, especially at the start of a new habit, or a habit you’re trying to change.
The key to “permanent, positive change is to create habits that automatically pay dividends, without continued effort or extensive reserves of willpower. The key to creating these habits,” writes Achor, “is ritual, repeated practice.”
It’s similar to reading a book, and not implementing what you’ve read to change some behaviour you want to change. The important thing is to “identify the activation energy – the time, the choices, the mental and physical effort they require, and then reduce it.”
Principle 7: Social Investment
Working things out alone is what many of us do. Heck, I do it all to well. But recently, I’ve tried to change. While I mentor a few people, I rarely asked someone to be my mentor, or for advice. That changed about 12 months ago, and soon I will hire an executive leadership coach. At a certain point, you can’t go at this alone if you want to be a true success or a better human. I now know that.
Principle 7 is about how important it is that when the going gets tough, hang on tight to your social circle.
Social investment is important. More than you think. Studies link happiness to social circles. The more alone someone is, the more unhappy they are. Makes sense, right? Studies even link lack of social support to high blood pressure. So think about how companies can help make sure people talk with each other during the day, as it can help reduce health care and insurance costs (a strategically placed coffee machine, or a cafeteria can help). They don’t have to always be deep connections. I know when I’m at the gym, I always feel a bit better after talking to someone (albeit briefly, since I’m there to workout), or when someone asks if you’re done with the bench. It can help give you that bounce in your step, or wake you up when it’s early in the morning and your trying to lift weights.
But when we’re dealing with a tough issue or challenge, we tend to try to go at it alone.
“Individuals who invest in their social support systems are simply better equipped to thrive in even the most difficult circumstances, while those who withdraw from the people around them effectively cut off every line of protection they have available, at the very moment they need them most.”
Researchers have also linked how social bonds were predictive of things like income and career advancement, as well as career success.
I love the last line of this chapter by Achor – it sums it up beautifully: “And in everyday life, both at work and at home, our social support can prove the difference between succumbing to the cult of the average and achieving our fullest potential.”
As leaders, and good humans, we have the duty to ensure we foster social connectedness, and not inhibit it. If you’re team is chatting respectfully or laughing in the hallway, don’t stop them – encourage it.
We all need more happiness in our lives – let’s make it our advantage.
Have you read The Happiness Advantage? What did you think of it? If you haven’t read it, is this book now on your list. Please leave your comments below.
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