We’ve arrived to the final principle in our Happiness Advantage series. It’s all about social investment, i.e. investing in relationships that shelter, sustain and nurture us. Having close relationships is what gets us through the challenges of life. Some of us are really good at opening up and sharing challenges and setbacks and then some of us like to tough it out and handle it […]
Principle 7 | Social Investment Read More »
We are on Principle 6 in our Happiness Advantage journey. Mastery or even improvement in this area will likely lead to a jump in our productivity (and happiness), because we will be turning bad habits into good ones. Achor, the author, has titled this principle cryptically – you won’t know what he means by the 20-second rule until the middle of the chapter. I won’t
Principle 6 – The 20-Second Rule or How to Turn Bad Habits Into Good Ones Read More »
We’re on Principle 5 of ‘The Happiness Advantage’, called the Zorro Circle. This is, of course, is a reference to the movie, Zorro. Before Zorro became the swashbuckling hero we remember, he had fallen into drinking and despair. That’s when Don Diego meets him and starts his training by drawing a small circle on the floor and telling him “This circle will be your world,
The Zorro Circle-or Gain Control Read More »
We are going over the 4th Principle – Falling Up, from The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor. The tagline is, ‘Capitalizing on the Downs to Build Upward Momentum’. After reading through the chapter again, I’d summarize it by saying this is about experiencing setbacks, roadblocks, failures and any kind of adversity. After taking some time to adjust and reflect, you look for the positive and
Falling Up-or Find Your Path Up After A Setback Read More »
Principle Three of ‘The Happiness Advantage’, is called The Tetris Effect. I like to call it ‘Retrain Your Brain to see Things In A More Positive Way’. Achor calls this ‘The Tetris Effect’, in reference to the digital game, Tetris. I think I’ve played it a few times. He’s making a connection between people playing Tetris for hours on end and then after they quit
The Tetris Effect-Retrain Your Brain Read More »
The second principle of Shawn Achor’s book, ‘The Happiness Advantage’ is The Fulcrum and the Lever. I think it’s more easily understood if you substitute, Change Your Mindset-Change Your Performance. Below is a visual of a fulcrum (the mind) and lever (power – the longer your lever, the more power/leverage you’ll have). The point being made is that “Our brains have the power to maximize
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Does feeling happy produce success or does success produce happiness? Achor, in his book, The Happiness Advantage’, is a big proponent of the former, and it makes sense to me. If you start your day with a positive or happy baseline, aren’t you more productive, positive and grateful? If there are bumps in the road, they can be handled from a position of strength because
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Happiness – it’s something we seek, work and pray for. We want to be happy in our personal lives, be happy and successful in our business lives, but how do we get there? For the next 7-8 weeks, we’re going to dive into that subject using Shawn Achor’s book, ‘The Happiness Advantage’, written in 2010. He’s a student, teacher and believer of positive psychology. You
Happiness-A Choice – A Work Ethic Read More »