How Happiness Affects Your Bottom Line

What is the key to happiness?

Most of us think that if we work hard and achieve more success we’ll be happier. Not so. It turns out when you look at the research, we’ve got it all backwards.

A recent study by the University of Rochester confirms this fact. In the study, one of the researchers, Edward Deci, a professor of psychology, concluded that, “even though our culture puts a strong emphasis on attaining wealth and fame, pursuing these goals does not contribute to having a satisfying life.”

In fact, according to the results of this study, being rich, famous, well-respected, or beautiful can actually have the opposite effect. It can actually make you miserable.

Shawn Achor has spent his entire career studying the science of happiness. He says, “Being successful doesn’t actually create any of the levels of happiness we thought it would.”

Why? Because every time you’re successful, your brain changes the goal post. Got good grades in school? Don’t get excited, you need to get into a better school. Got a good job? Don’t get excited because now you have to get a promotion. And the cycle continues.

The key, says Achor, is to realize that happiness really is a choice, not the result of our success, and he’s got the research to back it up.

“What’s amazing is, you learn happiness like a skill,” he says. The same way we learn how to swing a golf club, we can also learn how to use optimism, gratitude and compassion to rewire our brains.

Here’s the secret to happiness:

*Practicing gratitude and kindness

*Love what you do

*Spend time with friends and family

Sounds easy, right? Well, it is, but the problem is most of us don’t practice these simple things in our daily life.

Why is that?

Because most of us have been conditioned to scan the world for problems, mistakes, hassles and threats. This keeps our brains focused on what’s wrong with everything and blind to all the good things that are actually right in front of us.

“We never train people to scan the world for the things that they’re grateful for, or the things that are great, or what’s meaningful,” he notes. “When you don’t practice something, that part of your brain literally atrophies.”

That’s why we need to retrain our brains to be thankful, and to focus on the good things around us.

Here’s what he recommends to get you started:

1) Write down 3 things you’re thankful for daily

2) Meditate for 2 minutes a day on positive thoughts

3) Praise someone around you every day

Within 21 days, Achor promises you’ll begin to see a change in your level of happiness. But that’s only the beginning: “Within a period of 38 days we’ve observed changes to the neural pathways in the brains of people who practice these steps,” he says.

When our brains are trained to be more optimistic, we also tend to get better at making smarter choices. This results in greater productivity at work.

Businesses and organizations like Kohl’s, the NFL, and even the Pentagon have begun to employ Aker’s methodology and they’ve been reaping the benefits.

Companies who have implemented these practices at the corporate level have experienced dramatic results:

*31% increase in productivity

*40% increase in promotions

*30% increase in sales

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