The Happiness Track

How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success

by Emma Seppala

Number of pages: 214

ISBN: 978-0-06-234400-7

About the Author

Emma Seppala, Ph.D., is the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. She is also Co-director of the Yale College Emotional Intelligence Project at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a Lecturer at Yale College where she teaches the psychology of happiness.

Editorial Review

Most of us want to do a good job and we want to enjoy doing it. Everyone wants to be successful and happy. And yet achieving these two goals has never been more elusive. Because of advances in technology, the pace of our lives is reaching overwhelming levels. When we do achieve our goals by rushing, straining, and keeping up, we don’t necessarily feel good; we might experience a sense of relief, but that relief comes with a high price tag: burnout, disconnection, stress. Happiness has a profound positive effect on our professional and personal lives. It increases our emotional and social intelligence, boosts our productivity, and heightens our influence over peers and colleagues. These are the very ingredients that allow us to be successful without having to sacrifice our health and psychological wellbeing.

Book Reviews

“In addition to living in the present and making time to rest, Seppala offers convincing evidence that kindness is vital to happiness and success. She provides scientific evidence that, contrary to the common idea that the most successful people look out for number one, we are hardwired to be empathetic and social creatures. If the fact that kindness leads to happiness is not compelling enough, Seppala also asserts that self-focus harmsour relationships and makes us less effective leaders.”—Virginia Commonwealth University

“According to Seppälä, the best thing you can do for your career is to slow down and actually enjoy the present instead of pushing yourself to get ahead. In other words, trade in the fast track for the happiness track. What sets this book apart from the plethora of guides to living a happier life is that Seppälä is a scientist and she uses empirical data—not just anecdotes and opinions—to define six keys to happiness and success: 1) Live (or work) in the moment; 2) Tap into your resilience; 3) Manage your energy; 4) Do nothing; 5) Be good to yourself; and 6) Show compassion to others. Who can argue with any of that?”—Spirituality & Health Magazine

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Wisdom to Share

Everyone wants to be successful and happy. And yet achieving these two goals has never been more elusive.

Happiness—defined as a state of heightened positive emotion—has a profound positive effect on our professional and personal lives. It increases our emotional and social intelligence, boosts our productivity, and heightens our influence over peers and colleagues. These are the very ingredients that allow us to be successful without having to sacrifice our health and psychological wellbeing.

We all want to live at our full potential. When it comes to our goals, dreams, and aspirations, no one wants to be below average. And one of the things we’ve learned is that we need to have drive.

Self-control—the discipline to stick to your goals in the face of distractions—is one way we mismanage energy, thereby unnecessarily fatiguing ourselves. Whether you call it willpower, grit, or self-mastery, it is the mental determination to get the job done despite your feelings, the lure of alternative attractions, and hardships you have to endure. It is critical to success.

Research shows when you are excessively self-critical, you damage both your psychological wellbeing and your chances at success.

In times of failure or challenge, noticing your self-talk can help you curb self-criticism and replace it with self-compassion.

When your emotions are overwhelming, write yourself a letter as if you were writing to a friend. It might feel stilted or strange at first, but write a letter as if you were writing it to someone dear to you who had committed the same error. Your words should comfort and not attack, normalizing the situation rather than blowing it out of proportion.

Scientific findings suggest that calmness helps you conserve mental energy, allows you to exercise self-control without effort, and reduces the power of negative thoughts by providing perspective.

Play has a positive impact on creativity. In addition to helping us both mind-wander and diversify, it stimulates positive emotion, which research shows leads to greater insight and better problem solving.

Research shows that negative feelings like anxiety and depression, unlike other positive emotions, make us more self-centered. In contrast, positive emotions boost our inclination to connect with others in productive ways.

When we feel good, we gain the ability to pay attention to a wider range of experiences. We see the big picture rather than getting bogged down in the details.

You already have the capacity to come up with brilliant ideas, to remain calm in the face of overwhelming demands, to stay present when your mind pulls you away, to be kind to yourself and others, to sit with your thoughts and rest when the world tells you to go, go, go.