What is your definition of happiness? What is your definition of success? How do you believe you can reach happiness?
There is no perfect definition of happiness. Happiness is relative to the person experiencing it, therefore scientist refer to it as subjective well-being because it is based upon how each ofus feels about our own lives (Thompson & Prottas, 2005).
A meta-analysis of happiness research was conducted bringing together over 200 scientific studies including nearly 275,000 people which found that happiness leads to success is nearly every domain of our lives – marriage, health, friendship, community involvement, creativity, our jobs, careers and businesses (Goleman, 1998).
In today’s society the formula for success is if you work harder you will be more successful and if you are more successful you will be happier. But in reality this line of thinking is backwards, and science shows us this.
For example, most people set a goal, and believe once they reach this goal they will be happy, but instead they then set an even higher goal, and never actually take the time to enjoy what they had just accomplished. Therefore, they never truly reach a state of happiness.
Some examples include; Grades through school (got good grades, now I need to get better grades), Sports (scored 7 goals last season, score 10 goals next season), Business (reached my sales target, now I need to raise my sales target).
What we need to do is learn to live in the present, and be grateful for where we are. Shawn Archor, conducted research on Harvard Students and found that most students two weeks after the acceptance into the program, instead of seeing it as a privilege to be able to study at Harvard, started focusing on the competition, work load, and complaints of their new experience.
“This essentially pushes happiness over the cognitive horizon.” – Shawn Archor
Our mind shapes how we see the world! We need to create a better Positive to negative ratio for ourselves within our minds and thoughts. 90% of happiness is determined by how your brain processes the world!
We need to learn to enjoy the moment more, and develop a positive brain, which will in turn allow for better results. When we create positivity in the present, it allows an individual to think more intelligently, have increased creativity, higher energy levels, and the list goes on and on. Research shows, our brains are 31% more productive at positive compared to negative, neutral, or stressed (Shawn Archor).
When we are happy, Dopamine is released, turning on all learning centers in the brain.
The Happiness advantage creates:
- Better secure jobs
- Better keeping jobs
- Increased productivity
- More resiliency
- Less burnout
- Less turnover
- Greater sales
(Lyubominsky, 2005)
So how can you create and develop this positivity within your brain. To do this we need to rewire our own brain and research has shown that these different techniques work!
- Write three gratitude down for 21 days, which then rewires our brain to search the world for positivity (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).
- Journaling about something you did well during the day, which allows the brain to relive a positive experience (Slatcher and Pennebaker, 2006).
- Exercise (Babyak et al., 2000).
- Meditation allows us to get away from the constant business of society these days, cultural ADHD (Dweck, 2007).
- Random Acts of Kindness- write one positive email praising someone you know in your social network (Lyubuminsky, 2005).
These different techniques have proven and been shown to help rewire the brain. Therefore, if you can work on these different activities, you will help create a more positive thinking brain. Which will allow you to be happier, and Happiness is what really fuels success!
From a personal experience, I started applying these different techniques and the idea of the Happiness Advantage into my own daily life, and I saw amazing results. When you take a step back and enjoy where you are in life, you become happier, and then become even more productive at what you are working on, becoming more successful. I have seen great improvements with soccer and within my study when I applied these different ideas and mindset, to my own daily life, so I suggest you give it a shot!
If you would like to read up more on the topic, I would suggest reading The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, by Shawn Archor.
References:
Babyak, M., Blumenthal, J.A., Herman, S., et al., 2000. Exercise treatment for major depression: maintenance of therapeutic benefit at 10 months. Psychosom. Med. 62, 633–638
Dweck, C. (2007). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Countingblessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation ofgratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 84, 377–389.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success?. Psychological bulletin, 131(6), 803.
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam, at 77.
Slatcher, R. B., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2006). How do I love thee? Let me count the words: The social effects of expressive writing. Psychological Science, 17, 660–664.
Thompson, C.A., & Prottas, D.J. (2005). Relationships among organizational family support, job autonomy, perceived control, and employee well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 10(4), 100-118.
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