Book Recommendation - "The Happiness Advantage"

Book Name: The Happiness Advantage - Seven Principles that Fuel Success and Performance at Work

Author: Shawn Achor

Category: Business and Personal Development

Date Published: 2010

The AsphaltQueen's Rating:

Why I'm Recommending It: I love learning about brain hacks and positivity and happiness. Who doesn't want to have more happiness in their lives??? This book does a great job of providing concrete examples of how you can become more positive in order to gain a competitive advantage at work and in your personal life. Written by a Harvard lecturer, the content is based on lots of scientific research, not just anecdotal evidence.

Some of my favorite factoids, tips and takeaways:

• Pg 15 : "We become more successful when we are happier and more positive. For example, doctors put in a positive mood before making a diagnosis show almost three times more intelligence and creativity than doctors in a neutral state, and they make accurate diagnoses 19 percent faster. Optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 56 percent... It turns out that our brains are literally hardwired to perform at their best not when they are negative or even neutral, but when they are positive."

• Pg 40: Aristotle used the term eudaimonia when describing happiness, which translates to "human flourishing." Shawn states, "This term really resonates with me because it acknowledges that happiness is not all about yellow smiley faces and rainbows. For me, happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential."

• Pg 44: "Extensive research has shown that happiness actually has a very important evolutionary purpose... Instead of narrowing our actions down to fight or flight as negative emotions do, positive ones broaden the amount of possibilities we process, making us more thoughtful, creative, and open to new ideas."

• Pg 60: "...2.9013 is the ratio of positive to negative interactions necessary to make a corporate team successful. This means that it takes about three positive comments, experiences, or expressions to fend off the languishing effects of one negative."

• Pg 98: "When researchers pick random volunteers and train them to be more grateful over a period of a few weeks, they become happier and more optimistic, feel more socially connected, enjoy better quality sleep, and even experience fewer headaches than control groups." (The AsphaltQueen's recommended brain hack, courtesy of Keith Roberts, The Zenman, is to write down three things you are grateful for every morning. Retrain your brain to start your day off with positivity and gratefulness and reap the benefits all day long! ProTip: Check out Keith's "Oak Journal" if you want to utilize positive psychology to help you effectively set and achieve goals.)

• Pg 99: "But armed with positivity, the brain stays open to possibility... Priming yourself to expect a favorable outcome actually encodes your brain to recognize the outcome when it does in fact arise."

• Pg 130: "...greater feelings of control at work predicted greater satisfaction in nearly every aspect of life: family, job, relationships and so on. People who felt in control at work also had lower levels of stress, work-family conflict, and job turnover."

• Pg 161: "The 20-second rule ...put the desired behavior on the path of least resistance." Put the healthy foods out on the counter, visible and easy to grab, and the junk foods in the back of the cupboard. Put your sneakers and workout clothes right next to your bed, so they are the first thing you see in the morning. Turn off the email notifications on your phone so that you actually have to open up your email app to see your new messages.

• Pg 206: "Spreading the happiness advantage... the happier everyone is around you, the happier you will become... The power to spark positive emotional contagion multiples if you are in a leadership position. Studies have found that when leaders are in a positive mood, their employees are more likely to be in a positive mood themselves, to exhibit prosocial helping behaviors toward one another, and to coordinate tasks more efficiently and with less effort."