Happiness Advantage

Success causes happiness? No, it’s the other way round.

Happiness and optimism actually fuel performance and achievement – giving us the competitive edge that the author called the Happiness Advantage (p.3 - 4).

The author isolated seven principles that predict success and achievement.

THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES

哈佛七大黃金法則

#1 The Happiness Advantage

     快樂優勢

Happiness implies a positive mood in the present and positive outlook for the future. It has three measurable components: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential. P. 39-40 Positive brains have a biological advantage and retrain our brains to capitalize on positivity will improve our productivity and performance.

                                                    

#2 The Fulcrum and the Lever

     支點與槓桿

We view our work as a Job, a Career, or a Calling. People with a “job” see work as a chore and their paycheck as the reward. They work because they have to and constantly look forward to the time they can spend away from their job. People who view their work as a career work not only out of necessity, but also to advance and succeed. They are invested in their work and want to do well. Finally, people with a calling view work as an end in itself; their work is fulfilling not because of external rewards but because they feel it contributes to the greater good, draws on their personal strengths and gives them meaning and purpose. Unsurprisingly, people with a calling orientation not only find their work more rewarding, but work harder and longer because of it. And as a result, these are the people who are generally more likely to get ahead. (p.78) If we can adjust our mindset (our fulcrum) in a way that gives us the power (the lever), we can be more fulfilled and successful.

#3 The Tetris Effect

     俄羅斯方塊效應

When our brains constantly scan for and focus on the positive, we profit from three of the most important tools available to us: happiness, gratitude, and optimism. When our brains get stuck in a pattern that focuses on stress, negativity, and failure, we set ourselves up to fall.

We may make a daily list of “three good things”. When you write them down, your brain will be forced to scan for potential positives things that brought small or large laughs, feelings of accomplishment at work, a strengthened connection with family, a glimmer of hope for the future. This trains the brain to become more skilled at noticing and focusing on possibilities for personal and professional growth, and seizing opportunities to act on them. This also push out those small annoyances and frustrations. p. 100-101

#4 Falling Up

     在挫折中成長

In the midst of defeat, stress, and crisis, our brains map different paths to help us cope. There are three mental paths. One that keeps circling around where you currently are. Another leads you toward further negative consequences. And one that leads us from failure and to become stronger and more capable, the Third Path P. 108.

People with an optimistic explanatory style interpret adversity as being local and temporary while those with a pessimistic explanatory style see these events as more global and permanent. Our beliefs directly affect our actions. Those who believe the former are spurred on to higher performance P.123. In other words, those who can most successfully get themselves up off the mat are those who define themselves not by what has happened to them. But by what they can make out of what has happened. They use adversity to find the path forward P. 110-111.

#5 The Zorro Circle

     蘇洛圈

When challenges loom and we get over-whelmed, our rational brain can get hijacked by emotions. We can regain our control and enhance our decision-making skills by verbalizing the stress and helplessness.

Interestingly, employees who think they have, not actually have, high levels of control at the office are better at their hobs and report more job satisfaction. This is true in nearly every domain of life. So it is better to recommit to some manageable goals and focus our energies on something we can handle. Once our own performance improved, our circle of influence will expand.P.140

I very much like the two examples on how to clear one’s room and in-boxes listed on p. 141 – 143.

#6 The 20-Second Rule

     二十秒定律

Sustaining lasting change often feels impossible because our willpower is limited. The more we use the willpower, the more worn-out it gets. And when willpower fails, we fall back on our old habits and succumb to the path of least resistance.

Have you ever found free time more difficult to enjoy? For the most part, our jobs require us to use our skills, engage our minds, and pursue our goals – all things that have been shown to contribute to happiness. During free time, we often find it difficult to muster the energy necessary to kick-start “active leisure” like hobbies, games, and sports that enhance our concentration, engagement, motivation, and sense of enjoyment. So we simply follow the easiest, convenient and habitual path leads us to the couch and the television. Studies shown these “passive leisure” are enjoyable and engaging for only about 30 minutes, then they start sapping our energy and make us unable to shake a listless sense of disappointment.

What should we do? According to the author, by simply put the desired behavior on the path of least resistance, so it actually took less energy and effort to pick up and practice the desired habit than to avoid it. He referred this as the 20-Second Rule, because lowering the barrier to change by just 20 seconds was all it took to help us to form a new life habit. By the same token, by raising the barrier for habits you want to avoid can enhance our ability to jump-start positive change.

It’s worth to take some time to read the story of Ted about his struggle to keep up with his workload in p. 158.

#7 Social Investment

     人際投資

In the midst of challenges and stress, some people choose to hunker down and retreat within themselves. But the most successful people invest in their friends, peers, and family members to propel themselves forward.

Achor, Shawn. (2010). The happiness advantage: the seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work. NY: Crown business.

尚恩‧艾科爾。(2013) 。《哈佛最受歡迎的快樂工作學》。台灣：野人文化股份有限公司。