Happiness First, Success Second
July 26, 2011 | Jorge | Comments (0)
'Work hard then be happy' is one of the most pervasive and cross-cultural mantras of our times. We’re conditioned at a young age to ‘push our buttons’ in order to receive happiness. The idea is that if we accomplish our goals we’ll earn a state of happiness. But the problem is once we’ve accomplished a goal and received a dose of happiness, we’re already thinking about the next goal and more happiness…here comes more stress.
We need to rethink our conceptions of happiness and success. A book that helped me develop this new understanding is Shawn Achor’s The Happiness Advantage. This new idea explains that the success-happiness relationship is in fact inversed. It’s not striving and attaining success that will make us happy but rather, the state of happiness makes us more successful. It’s about conditioning our minds to notice positive cues and opportunities in the environment. After all, neurological research shows that our brains operate much more efficiently when we are happy and not stressed.
For more in-depth information about “the happiness advantage,” checkout The Happiness Advantage: the seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work, 1st ed, available in print and audio-format.