614: Shawn Achor | Leveraging the Happiness Advantage

Daily Habits

Shawn Achor explains that choosing happiness can lead to greater success in various aspects of life, including relationships and careers. He highlights five simple habits that take less than two minutes a day and can significantly improve happiness and success if practiced consistently for 21 days 1. One such habit is writing down three new things you're grateful for each day, which trains the brain to focus on the positive 1.

As your brain is scanning for the positive, your brain actually gets better at it. Those neural pathways get stronger and your brain actually gets better over the entire course of the day of seeing the positives that were already latent within that environment.

--- Shawn Achor

He also discusses the importance of replacing negative habits with positive ones to create a more optimistic mindset 2.

   

Stress Management

Shawn emphasizes that stress is an inevitable part of life, but its effects can be managed by changing our perception of it. He shares research showing that viewing stress as enhancing rather than harmful can lead to significant improvements in health and performance 3. For instance, during the banking crisis, employees who saw stress as a potential enhancer experienced a 23% drop in health-related symptoms 3.

Stress is inevitable in our lives, but its effects upon us are not. And it's changed by how we perceive stress with our lives.

--- Shawn Achor

This shift in mindset can transform stress into a catalyst for growth and resilience 4.

   

Social Connections

Shawn discusses the profound impact of social connections on happiness and success. He explains that small positive interactions, like making eye contact and smiling, can significantly improve social bonds and overall happiness 5. These interactions can create a ripple effect, enhancing the mood and behavior of those around us.

What we found is, even these small little changes — there's a study that was done at Yale. They found if you have three strangers come into a room, that all with different emotions, the other two people will leave with an increased likelihood of experiencing the emotions of the most verbally or nonverbally expressive person.

--- Shawn Achor

He also highlights the concept of mirror neurons, which cause us to unconsciously mimic the emotions of those around us, further emphasizing the contagious nature of happiness 6.