The Compounding Effect: How Positive Psychology Increases Happiness

In this week's edition of Practitioner's Digest, we discuss the power of positive psychology in fostering happiness and success.

1. Food for Thought Positive psychology is powerful because it can be applied to any aspect of our lives. It's a value system for looking at the world and asking: What are my needs? What are the needs of others? How can I ensure they are met? This makes it a versatile tool, not just for helping practitioners—but for anyone wishing to help themselves and others live a fulfilled life. Because happiness isn't determined by external factors—it's a product of our mindset. Improving our outlook manifests more positive results in reality, which reinforces our positive mindset and creates a feedback loop that leads to further positive outcomes and greater happiness. And it's this compounding effect that makes positive psychology so effective.
2. Inspiring Quote “Waiting to be happy limits our brain’s potential for success, whereas cultivating positive brains makes us more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive, which drives performance upward.” — Shawn Achor
3. Free Science-based Tool The Four Archetypes of Happiness. If we want to get better at anything and improve our outcomes, it helps to take a snapshot of where we currently are and where we'd like to be. We can then work out how to bridge the gap in between. This reflection exercise helps people identify their happiness archetype and create an action plan for moving towards (or remaining in) the ideal Happy Person archetype. [Link]
4. Book Recommendation The Happiness Advantage — Shawn Achor. Based on a decade of research, this book challenges the idea that if we work hard and become successful, we'll be happy. It shows instead that happiness is a precursor to success, not a result of it, and proposes a proven seven-step framework with simple everyday actions to cultivate a positive mindset and create positive, lasting change. [Link]
5. A Question For Your Clients “What actions that you take spread positive emotions and inspire them in others?”. I like this question because it does three things: It makes people think about the positive emotions they experience. It makes them reflect on their actions and behaviors. And it makes them consider how they can positively affect others. That makes it a high-leverage question for generating rich insight and opening multiple pathways for your conversations.
6. Free Infographic

Thanks for reading. I'm curious, what are your views on this approach to psychology?

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