The Happiness Advantage

The Seven Principles Of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work

by Shawn Achor

Number of pages: 256

Publisher: Crown Business

BBB Library: Psychology and Strengths

ISBN: 9780307591548



About the Author

Shawn Achor is an American happiness researcher, author, and speaker known for his advocacy of positive psychology. He authored The Happiness Advantage and founded GoodThink,Inc.

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Editorial Review

If you observe the people around you, you’ll find most individuals follow a formula that has been subtly taught to them by their schools, their company, their parents, or society. That is, if you work hard, you will become successful, and once you become ‘successful’, then you’ll be happy. This pattern of belief explains what most often motivates us in life. We think: If I just get that raise, or hit next sales target, I’ll be happy. If I can just get that next good grade, I’ll be happy. If I lose those five pounds, I’ll be happy. And so on. Success first, happiness second. The only problem is that this formula is broken. Even more important, the formula is broken because it is backward. More than a decade of groundbreaking research in the fields of positive psychology and neuroscience has proven that the relationship between success and happiness works the other way round. Thanks to the cutting-edge science, we now know that happiness is the precursor to success, not merely the result. Besides that, happiness and optimism actually fuel performance and achievement; giving us the competitive edge called ‘The Happiness Advantage’.

Book Reviews

"The Happiness Advantage thoughtfully lays out the steps to increasing workplace positivity." Forbes

"The notion that optimism and happiness will lead to success rather than the other way around is the main thrust of research conducted by Shawn Achor, SUCCESS columnist and author of The Happiness Advantage." Success

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Wisdom to Share

We think: If I just get that raise, or hit next sales target, I’ll be happy.

If success causes happiness, then everyone who has ever accomplished a goal of any kind should be happy.

Our goalposts of success keep getting pushed further and further out, so that happiness gets pushed over the horizon.

Thanks to the cutting-edge science, we now know that happiness is the precursor to success, not merely the result.

You can’t eliminate depression without making someone happy.

If all you strive for is diminishing the bad, you’ll only attain the average.

As a society, we know very well how to be unwell and miserable and so little about how to thrive.

The best way to motivate employees is 'not' to bark orders and foster a stressed a fearful workforce.

The findings of a 'meta-analysis' exactly matched the principle that happiness leads to success in nearly every domain, including work, health, friendship, sociability.

Happiness is not the belief that we don't need to change; it is the realization that we can.

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