The Happiness Advantage

Intro

• If you work hard, you will get results, then you will be happy.
• Happiness is the pre-curors to success not the result
• social support networks important 7 principles
• retrain to be more positive
• fulcrum and lever - adjust mindset to give power to be more successful
• Tetris effect, - spot patterns of possibility instead of being in spirals of negativity and stress
• falling up, mental path to get out of issues
• Zoro circle - regain control over irrational goals
• 20 second rule - small adjustments to replace bad habits with good ones which will be the default
• social investment - support networks Nero plasticity
• brains can change, via practice
• change is possible and we have no idea what the limits are You actually have to implement this for it to work

Principles

Happiness advantage

• defining happiness
  • individual self reports
  • experience of positive emotions, pleasure + deeper meaning and purpose
  • positive mood in the present and positive outlook towards future
  • parts: pleasure, engagement and meaning
  • the joy we feel striving after our potential
• positive emotion / happiness predicts health and life span and general work success
• your brain on happiness
  • broadens and deepens ideas
  • cool and fun and creative stuff
• find happiness to prime you before, doing stuff. This increases effectiveness.
• tactics
  • envision success
  • completely unrelated happiness stuff to do
  • remember time when you did something similar well
• things to boost happiness
  • person dependent
  • meditate
  • find something to look forward to or scheduled something to look forward to (anticipation is key)
  • conscious acts of kindness
  • infuse positivity into surroundings
    • time outside on nice days
    • photos of family in room
    • turn off distractions
    • Less negative media
  • exercise
  • spend money but not on stuff, especially on activities with others
  • exercise your signature strength, exercise a strength of character
    • at least 1 a day
• at a job, bosses with happiness stuff creates good outcomes. Things like Google with its chefs and gyms
  • frequent recognition and encouragement
• losado line
  • take 1 negative to 2.903 positive comments to keep a team working well scientifically

Principles 2 - fulcrum and lever - changing performance by changing mindset

• concept
  • length of lever belief in ones potential
  • fulcrum point, mindset
• your mindset influenced your perception of time
• mindset changes outcome, placebos can actually create changes in reality
  • the mental construction of your reality inform and changes your reality
• the more you think of things as drudgery the more they are
• define the task mentally in a positive way, and describe it more positively to others
• think of time away from work as productive
  • free time as a way to connect with others
  • free time as a way to recharge
• the more you believe in your ability to succeed the more you do
  • focus on the reasons you will succeed, remember past situations when you've done well
• must believe in a growth mindset
• job, a career or calling
  • job is a chore
  • career are invested and want to succeed
  • calling,
• different mindset
  • janitor who focuses on messes to clean up rather than the safe and clean environment that they're making for the children
• rewrite job description as a calling description
• try to see how something at work you don't enjoy contributes to good things either directly or a few steps removed
• impact on others
  • prime others to think we'll of themselves
  • when our belief in another person through body languages makes your belief a reality - Pygmalion effect
• employees typically become the worker their employer expects them to be by virtue of the self fulfilling profacy
  • done via subconscious body and language wording

Principle 3 - the Tetris effect - training your brain to capitalize on possibility

• if your job trains you to look for negatives frequently, you will likely take this into your everyday life
  • tax auditors, experts at finding mistakes
  • can only see mistakes of others in everyday life
• selective perceptions - we tend to miss what we're not looking for. Even if it's super obvious
• gratitude is good
• optimism
• if you bias yourself to see more opportunity, you will find more

Falling up, capitalize on the downs to build upward momentum

• conceive of failure as an opportunity for growth (then it becomes one)
  • as opposed to the worst thing in the world (which it then becomes)
• you can over learn helplessness and start applying it to all situations
  • believing there is no way up, then not long for opportunities. As opposed to looking for opportunities despite the circumstances
• if you get shot in the arm during a burglary, are you lucky or unlucky.
  • logic as to why, is the important part.
• counter fact invented.
  • either imagined being fine as comparison or imagined getting hurt worse as counter fact
• an optimistic explanatory style, things are local and temporary vs global and permanent for negative
  • it's not that bad and will get better, vs it is bad and will never get better
• abcd model
  • adversity - event you can't change
  • belief - why you thought it happened and what it meant for the future (do you think it is solvable or unsolvable, pervasive or temporary)
  • consequence - if good we've maximized chance of a positive consequences
  • disputation - else your belief is just that, a belief, then challenge or dispute it. Externalize, argue like it's someone else
  • adversity is never as bad as we predict, physiologically

The Zoro circle how, limiting your focus to small manageable goals can expand your sphere of power

• circle of control,
  • one of the biggest drivers of success is the idea that our actions impact our success
  • concentrate on small manageable goals to maintain the idea
  • gain confidence with success at above, and expand size of tasks
• less about how much control we actually have and how much control we think we have
  • internal locus over external
• brain has, emotional quick reaction, and slow logical side
  • stress uses causes first to go rather than second. This is biological
• solutions
  • awareness and verbalization of emotions
    • journal or verbalize
  • identify what you have control over and what you don't
  • one small goal, they can quickly achieve. Concentration of efforts
  • start small and work up over time

The 20 second rule, turning bad habits into good ones by minimizing barriers to change

• understanding what to do can be easy, execution / positive habits are hard to keep
• don't rely on will power alone
  • because will power get harder and runs out
• we tend to go path of least resistance when it comes to entertainment after a long day
  • this generally means passive enjoyment which is typically less meaningful than active enjoyment (TV, vs sports )
• we are drawn to things that are easy, convenient and habitual
• active leisure is better but often more friction to startup, activation energy
• when you work you get distracted, which is not good, emails, breaks, routine, etc.
  • if you look at your time distribution (how often you look at social media)
  • concentration loss creates issues, because it takes a long time to reengage in the focus mode
  • deep work better
  • issue is ease of access to distractions
• redirecting the path - the 20 second rule
  • lower barrier to change by 20 seconds
• if you can handle the will power required to stop a bad habit eliminate it as a feasible option. Freeze credit cards. Don't keep junk food around
• methods
  • disabled short cuts that make things easier to increase friction
  • disable auto login
  • hide short cuts in a weird place
• sleep in your gym clothes
  • limit choices you have to make
  • too many choices create will power drain
  • make the default choice for the path you want (take decision out of it)
  • decisions about when to make decisions, make them ahead of time
  • as you get better / more habitual, you can have less rules

Social investment - social support is your greatest asset

• when things are tough rely on others around you, not the opposite
• helps with sense of purpose, bounce back and better resources
• social support and happiness are hugely correlated
• social connections are motivation, make things better and easier to achieve and more fun
• you don't need to be deep to be meaningful.
• You should react like this to positive news
  • active and constructive, enthusiastic support, specific comments and follow up questions
  • that's wonderful, I'm glad your boss has noticed how hard you've been working, when does your promotion go into effect
  • passive, or negative are poor, ignoring is the worst
• forced bonding bad
  • good people will give space for this
  • time for team lunches and after hours get together
  • language that implies common purpose and interdependence
  • be present, don't have your phone out or keyboard clacking (this signals you're unengaged)
  • walk together

Ending credits

• your feelings are contagious
• just looking at someone else who is feeling or doing something can influence your emotions