The happy secret to better work | Shawn Achor - YouTube

At the tender ages of seven and five, my sister and I discovered what would later be known as positive psychology. During a game that went awry, I convinced my injured sister that she was a unicorn, which stopped her tears and made her happy. This incident was a precursor to a scientific revolution in understanding the human brain.

I learned that in academia, economics, and psychology, we often focus on the average, eliminating outliers to find the 'line of best fit'. However, this approach overlooks individual potential for happiness, productivity, and creativity. By studying the positive outliers, we can learn how to elevate everyone's average, not just bring people up to the current one.

The media often bombards us with negative stories, skewing our perception of the world. This phenomenon, known as "the medical school syndrome," can make us believe we're suffering from various ailments when we're actually fine. It's not necessarily reality that shapes us but the lens through which we view the world. Change the lens, and you change happiness and every educational and business outcome.

Despite common belief, our external world only predicts 10% of our long-term happiness. 90% is determined by how our brain processes the world. Success doesn't lead to happiness; rather, happiness can lead to success. Most people believe that working harder will make them more successful and thus happier. However, this formula is backward. Happiness provides a 'happiness advantage,' where your brain at positive outperforms the negative, neutral, or stressed state.

There are simple ways to rewire your brain to be more positive, like gratitude exercises, journaling about positive experiences, exercise, meditation, and random acts of kindness. These practices can reverse the formula for happiness and success, creating not just ripples of positivity but a real revolution.

The original article: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fLJsdqxnZb0&list=PLV7xfBoJKBNQ3yhYgQRqocSWs1MKF7j0n&index=21