Episode 46 - Review and Summary of The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

Booked Morning Podcast

Often as parents, leaders, and entrepreneurs, we are afraid of happiness. Or we don’t fully understand it. Because we feel if we become happy, our pursuit of success will change. We think that if we are happy, we will become complacent or not have the hunger to push ourselves to achieve our goals in life and in business. Modern society associates happiness with pleasure, but pleasure is fleeting. This is what Shawn tries to open our eyes on. At a very young age, we are taught to study hard, find a safe secure job and be successful, and then we will find happiness. But every time we achieve something in life, we move the goal post, because of this mindset, tells us to keep pushing forward. This rat race never ends, because we are always in pursuit of happiness that seems unattainable. And when we attain it, we feel temporary pleasure, before the goal is moved again, and the cycle of unhappiness continues. Shawn Achor the author is from Harvard and is one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success. What he found in his research was that Figuring out what makes us happy, pursue it and we’ll find happiness and success will follow. His research shows, that happiness is one of the primary tools we can utilize to increase our performance, which helps us move faster toward our goals. He tells us that “Happiness is not the belief that we don't need to change; it's the realization that we can.” We wants us to consider that Happiness is the joy we feel in striving after our potential. He offers seven (7) principles to help us to do just that. So lets dive right in. Allow me to leave you with this final thought Success does not equal happiness. On the contrary, our success, depends on our level of happiness. It starts in our brain, and radiates outwards and jumps to another person, then to a group, a community, and beyond. While the investments in happiness can be small, the dividends of happiness are enormous. Discovering happiness does not mean big changes in our lives, in fact, all we have to do is adjust our mindset, and notice positive things that are there already there and build on that to start living a more positive and happy life.