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The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Perfor...Amazon Videos

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The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life Kindle Edition

by Shawn Achor (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • An engaging, deeply researched guide to flourishing in a world of increasing stress and negativity—the inspiration for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time

“Powerful [and] charming . . . A book for just about anyone . . . The philosophies in this book are easily the best wire frames to build a happy and successful life.”—Medium

Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can.

Our most commonly held formula for success is broken. Conventional wisdom holds that once we succeed, we’ll be happy; that once we get that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But the science reveals this formula to be backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around.

Research shows that happy employees are more productive, more creative, and better problem solvers than their unhappy peers. And positive people are significantly healthier and less stressed and enjoy deeper social interaction than the less positive people around them.

Drawing on original research—including one of the largest studies of happiness ever conducted—and work in boardrooms and classrooms across forty-two countries, Shawn Achor shows us how to rewire our brains for positivity and optimism to reap the happiness advantage in our lives, our careers, and even our health. His strategies include:

• The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility so we can see and seize opportunities all around us
• Social Investment: how to earn the dividends of a strong social support network
• The Ripple Effect: how to spread positive change within our teams, companies, and families

By turns fascinating, hopeful, and timely, The Happiness Advantage reveals how small shifts in our mind-set and habits can produce big gains at work, at home, and elsewhere.

From the Publisher

	Big Potential	Before Happiness

Customer Reviews	755	882
Price	$7.48	$10.93
	Shows how to unlock hidden sources of potential in ourselves and others	Helps answer the question: Why are some people able to make positive change while others remain the same?

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Shawn Achor and The Happiness Advantage

“Achor transports us to his virtual classroom, a journey along which we glean the seven secrets of happiness. The Happiness Advantage reveals the most important discoveries coming out of modern psychology.”—Rom Brafman, bestselling co-author of Sway and Click

“Thoughtfully lays out the steps to increasing workplace positivity.”—Forbes

“Powerful . . . A supremely important book for anyone in management . . . accessible [and] easy to read.”—Medium

“A big star . . . a world-famous expert.”—New York Times

“Shawn Achor is funny, self-deprecating, and devastating to my notions of what his field is all about. . . . I’m butter to his knife.”—Boston Globe

“Achor bases his training on a burgeoning body of research on the positive psychology movement, which emphasizes instilling resiliency and positive attitudes.”—The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Shawn Achor is one of the world’s leading experts on happiness, success, and potential. His research has graced the cover of Harvard Business Review, and his TED Talk is one of the most popular of all time, with more than 15 million views. Shawn spent twelve years at Harvard before bringing this research to nearly half the Fortune 100, as well as places like the Pentagon, impoverished schools in Africa, and the White House. His research has also been published in top psychology journals and featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fortune. His interview with Oprah Winfrey and his PBS program have been seen by millions. He now serves on the World Happiness Council and continues his research.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I applied to Harvard on a dare.

I was raised in Waco, Texas, and never really expected to leave. Even as I was applying to Harvard, I was setting down roots and training to be a local volunteer firefighter. For me, Harvard was a place from the movies, the place mothers joke about their kids going to when they grow up. The chances of actually getting in were infinitesimally small. I told myself I’d be happy just to tell my kids someday, offhandedly at dinner, that I had even applied to Harvard. (I imagined my imaginary children being quite impressed.)

When I unexpectedly got accepted, I felt thrilled and humbled by the privilege. I wanted to do the opportunity justice. So I went to Harvard, and I stayed . . . for the next twelve years.

When I left Waco, I had been out of Texas four times and never out of the country (though Texans consider anything out of Texas foreign travel). But as soon as I stepped out of the T in Cambridge and into Harvard Yard, I fell in love. So after getting my BA, I found a way to stay. I went to grad school, taught sections in sixteen different courses, and then began delivering lectures. As I pursued my graduate studies, I also became a Proctor, an officer of Harvard hired to live in residence with undergraduates to help them navigate the difficult path to both academic success and happiness within the Ivory Tower. This effectively meant that I lived in a college dorm for a total of 12 years of my life (not a fact I brought up on first dates).

I tell you this for two reasons. First, because I saw Harvard as such a privilege, it fundamentally changed the way my brain processed my experience. I felt grateful for every moment, even in the midst of stress, exams, and blizzards (something else I had only seen in the movies). Second, my 12 years teaching in the classrooms and living in the dorms afforded me a comprehensive view of how thousands of other Harvard students advanced through the stresses and challenges of their college years. That’s when I began noticing the patterns.

Paradise Lost and Found

Around the time that Harvard was founded, John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, “The Mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

Three hundred years later, I observed this principle come to life. Many of my students saw Harvard as a privilege, but others quickly lost sight of that reality and focused only on the workload, the competition, the stress. They fretted incessantly about their future, despite the fact that they were earning a degree that would open so many doors. They felt overwhelmed by every small setback instead of energized by the possibilities in front of them. And after watching enough of those students struggle to make their way through, something dawned on me. Not only were these students the ones who seemed most susceptible to stress and depression, they were the ones whose grades and academic performance were suffering the most.

Years later, in the fall of 2009, I was invited to go on a monthlong speaking tour throughout Africa. During the trip, a CEO from South Africa named Salim took me to Soweto, a township just outside of Johannesburg that many inspiring people, including Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have called their home.

We visited a school next to a shantytown where there was no electricity and scarce running water. Only when I was in front of the children did it dawn on me that none of the stories I normally use in my talks would work. Sharing the research and experiences of privileged American college students and wealthy, powerful business leaders seemed inappropriate. So I tried to open a dialogue. Struggling for points of common experience, I asked in a very clearly tongue-in-cheek tone, “Who here likes to do schoolwork?” I thought the seemingly universal distaste for schoolwork would bond us together. But to my shock, 95 percent of the children raised their hands and started smiling genuinely and enthusiastically.

Afterward, I jokingly asked Salim why the children of Soweto were so weird. “They see schoolwork as a privilege,” he replied, “one that many of their parents did not have.” When I returned to Harvard two weeks later, I saw students complaining about the very thing the Soweto students saw as a privilege. I started to realize just how much our interpretation of reality changes our experience of that reality. The students who were so focused on the stress and the pressure?—?the ones who saw learning as a chore?—?were missing out on all the opportunities right in front of them. But those who saw attending Harvard as a privilege seemed to shine even brighter. Almost unconsciously at first, and then with ever-increasing interest, I became fascinated with what caused those high potential individuals to develop a positive mindset to excel, especially in such a competitive environment. And likewise, what caused those who succumbed to the pressure to fail—or stay stuck in a negative or neutral position.

Researching Happiness at Hogwarts

For me, Harvard remains a magical place, even after twelve years. When I invite friends from Texas to visit, they claim that eating in the freshman dining hall is like being at Hogwarts, Harry Potter’s fantastical school of magic. Add in the other beautiful buildings, the university’s abundant resources, and the seemingly endless opportunities it offers, and my friends often end up asking, “Shawn, why would you waste your time studying happiness at Harvard? Seriously, what does a Harvard student possibly have to be unhappy about?”

In Milton’s time, Harvard had a motto that reflected the school’s religious roots: Veritas, Christo et Ecclesiae (Truth, for Christ and the Church). For many years now, that motto has been truncated to a single word: Veritas, or just truth. There are now many truths at Harvard, and one of them is that despite all its magnificent facilities, a wonderful faculty, and a student body made up of some of America’s (and the world’s) best and brightest, it is home to many chronically unhappy young men and women. In 2004, for instance, a Harvard Crimson poll found that as many as 4 in 5 Harvard students suffer from depression at least once during the school year, and nearly half of all students suffer from depression so debilitating they can’t function.1

This unhappiness epidemic is not unique to Harvard. A Conference Board survey released in January of 2010 found that only 45 percent of workers surveyed were happy at their jobs, the lowest in 22 years of polling.2 Depression rates today are ten times higher than they were in 1960.3 Every year the age threshold of unhappiness sinks lower, not just at universities but across the nation. Fifty years ago, the mean onset age of depression was 29.5 years old. Today, it is almost exactly half that: 14.5 years old. My friends wanted to know, Why study happiness at Harvard? The question I asked in response was: Why not start there?

So I set out to find the students, those 1 in 5 who were truly flourishing?—?the individuals who were above the curve in terms of their happiness, performance, achievement, productivity, humor, energy, or resilience?—?to see what exactly was giving them such an advantage over their peers. What was it that allowed these people to escape the gravitational pull of the norm? Could patterns be teased out of their lives and experience to help others in all walks of life to be more successful in an increasingly stressful and negative world? As it turns out, they could.

Scientific discovery is a lot about timing and luck. I serendipitously found three mentors?—?Harvard professors Phil Stone, Ellen Langer, and Tal Ben-Shahar?—?who happened to be at the vanguard of a brand new field called positive psychology. Breaking with traditional psychology’s focus on what makes people unhappy and how they can return to “normal,” these three were applying the same scientific rigor to what makes people thrive and excel?—?the very same questions I wanted to answer.

Escaping the Cult of the Average

The graph below may seem boring, but it is the very reason I wake up excited every morning. (Clearly, I live a very exciting life.) It is also the basis of the research underlying this book.

This is a scatter-plot diagram. Each dot represents an individual, and each axis represents some variable. This particular diagram could be plotting anything: weight in relation to height, sleep in relation to energy, happiness in relation to success, and so on. If we got this data back as researchers, we would be thrilled because very clearly there is a trend going on here, and that means that we can get published, which in the academic world is all that really matters. The fact that there is one weird red dot?—?what we call an outlier?—?up above the curve is no problem. It’s no problem because we can just delete it. We can delete it because it’s clearly a measurement error?—?and we know that it’s an error because it’s screwing up our data.

One of the very first things students in intro psychology, statistics, or economics courses learn is how to “clean up the data.” If you are interested in observing the general trend of what you are researching, then outliers mess up your findings. That’s why there exist countless formulas and statistics packages to help enterprising researchers eliminate these “problems.” And to be clear, this is not cheating; these are statistically valid procedures?—?if, that is, one is interested only in the general trend. I am not.

The typical approach to understanding human behavior has always been to look for the average behavior or outcome. But in my view this misguided approach has created what I call the “cult of the average” in the behavioral sciences. If someone asks a question such as “How fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom?” science changes that question to “How fast does the average child learn to read in the classroom?” We then ignore the children who read faster or slower, and tailor the classroom toward the “average” child. That’s the first mistake traditional psychology makes.

If we study merely what is average, we will remain merely average.

Conventional psychology consciously ignores outliers because they don’t fit the pattern. I’ve sought to do the opposite: Instead of deleting these outliers, I want to learn from them.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003F3PMYI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown Currency
Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 14, 2010
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4.2 MB
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 258 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780307591562
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0307591562
Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #48,249 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #38 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Kindle Store)
- #39 in Motivational Business Management
- #44 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Books)

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Shawn Achor

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Shawn Achor is one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness, success and potential. His research on mindset made the cover of Harvard Business Review, and his TED talk is one of the most popular of all time with 16 million views. He has worked with over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, the Pentagon and the White House, and lectured in more than 50 countries (from CEOs in China to doctors in Dubai and school children in South Africa). His Happiness Advantage training is one of the most successful corporate training programmes in the world. His research has been published in the New York Times, WSJ, Harvard Business Review, Forbes and Fortune. He is the author of The Happiness Advantage and Before Happiness.

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Customers find this book provides excellent insights into positive psychology and how to cultivate a more positive mindset, with humorous stories and real-life examples that make it captivating. Moreover, the book is easy to follow and implement on a daily basis, and customers appreciate its quick and timely delivery of content. Additionally, they praise its readability, with one customer noting how it clarifies seven important research-based principles, while another mentions how it creates a happier work environment.

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Insight Readability Happiness Humor Ease of use Story quality Resiliency Pacing

703 customers mention "Insight"687 positive16 negative

Customers find the book insightful, appreciating its practical information and how it shows readers the path to change their mindset. One customer specifically mentions that it clarifies seven important research-based principles, while another notes how it helps develop practices and daily habits.

"...Achor discusses how positive leadership and a culture that prioritizes happiness can lead to significant improvements in job satisfaction, engagement..." Read more

"If you're looking for a book that will inspire, motivate, and equip you to live a happier, more fulfilling life, then 'The Happiness Advantage' is a..." Read more

"...in the specific, actionable, and proven principles that predict success and achievement, and that can and should be incorporated into one’s life...." Read more

"...In conclusion, the book "The Happiness Advantage" gives us valuable strategies to help people harness the power of positivity and happiness to..." Read more

333 customers mention "Readability"316 positive17 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and well-written, appreciating how the topics are presented in a clear and understandable manner.

"...practices can be leveraged for personal growth and organizational improvement...." Read more

"...Achors offers up his seven principles in such an accessible style that to read them is to begin practicing them...." Read more

"...a Holistic Course I am taking, and I am very glad it is an option for the book reading and also an option on Amazon...." Read more

"...This book could also be called: The Placebo Effect. It is very very VERY real...." Read more

260 customers mention "Happiness"256 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights into the happiness advantage and its encouragement to cultivate a positive mindset, noting that it makes them happier as they read it and helps create a more positive work environment.

""The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life" by Shawn Achor is a compelling book that turns traditional thinking..." Read more

"...you're looking for a book that will inspire, motivate, and equip you to live a happier, more fulfilling life, then 'The Happiness Advantage' is a..." Read more

"...six years ago, succinctly captures seven principles that will enhance anyone’s work life...." Read more

"...A positive mindset can change our perception, allowing us to overcome obstacles and adapt to change more quickly, changing our performance. 3...." Read more

149 customers mention "Humor"149 positive0 negative

Customers find the book humorous, with the author incorporating fun stories and examples throughout.

"...of a story-telling format, while experiencing the author's delightful sense of humor. I rarely laugh out loud reading b-books...." Read more

"...Well-cited and including fun and memorable anecdotes, the book keeps a fairly light-hearted tone while providing plenty of useful data...." Read more

"...With Shawn's conversational writing style, solid research base, and plenty of engaging examples..." Read more

"...to the emotions of joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride amusement, inspiration, awe and love...." Read more

119 customers mention "Ease of use"116 positive3 negative

Customers find the book's principles easy to follow and research-based, with great suggestions for simple daily practices.

"...as enhanced brain function, which in turn leads to better problem-solving abilities, creativity, and job performance...." Read more

"...The advice is simple, largely actionable, and helpful in keeping focused on happiness---and understanding ways in which obsessive focus on..." Read more

"...are well proven methods for dealing with life's setbacks, navigating difficult change, building resilience, and increasing optimism and..." Read more

"...– because the author doesn’t just say “Get Happy” – He gives you specific tasks and practices to accomplish it...." Read more

63 customers mention "Story quality"63 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's real-life stories that make it captivating and full of examples, with one customer noting how the experiences come to life instantly.

"...Well-cited and including fun and memorable anecdotes, the book keeps a fairly light-hearted tone while providing plenty of useful data...." Read more

"...that Shawn explains with volunteer firefighting is succinct and memorable. You owe it to yourself to take a weekend and just read it." Read more

"...The real-life stories make the book captivating. As a result, we do not want to let the book go...." Read more

"...down with positive psychology is clearly explained with very good real life incidents not only makes it a happy read but also a motivation to..." Read more

27 customers mention "Resiliency"27 positive0 negative

Customers find the book resilient and solid, with good material and density, and one customer notes its scientifically sound approach.

"...positive mindset can significantly increase motivation, efficiency, resilience, creativity, and, ultimately, success in the workplace. -..." Read more

"...are not only happier, but they are more productive, energetic, and resilient...." Read more

"...This is a much deeper, lasting, and ultimately more fulfilling place. Happiness is a byproduct of well-being and flourishing but not the end goal...." Read more

"...that will improve classroom environments as well as the overall quality of life." Read more

25 customers mention "Pacing"20 positive5 negative

Customers appreciate the book's pacing, finding it quick and timely, with one customer noting its immediately actionable content.

"Dr. Achor's work is perhaps more necessary, timely, and impactful now than in in the wake of the economic implosion of 2008!..." Read more

"This was a quick and easy read...." Read more

"...The book is well-written and reads very quickly (I read it on two airplane rides)...." Read more

"...My only qualm with the book was that the main points seemed to drag on and repeat themselves at times...." Read more

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Dr. David Farrar
Key insights into how to be happy based in solid psychological research
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2024
Format: KindleVerified Purchase

"The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life" by Shawn Achor is a compelling book that turns traditional thinking about happiness and success on its head. Based on positive psychology principles and research, Achor proposes that happiness is not just a result of success but a precursor to it. Here’s a summary of key concepts and insights from the book, which I find particularly relevant and insightful:

- Positive Psychology at Work: Achor, who spent over a decade at Harvard University studying happiness, draws on his own research and that of others in the field of positive psychology to argue that a positive mindset can significantly increase motivation, efficiency, resilience, creativity, and, ultimately, success in the workplace.

- The Happiness Advantage: The core idea of the book is that individuals who cultivate a positive mindset experience a 'happiness advantage'. This advantage manifests as enhanced brain function, which in turn leads to better problem-solving abilities, creativity, and job performance. Achor presents seven principles that individuals can use to improve their happiness and success rates.

- Seven Principles: These principles include the power of positive psychology, the fulcrum and the lever (changing your experience of reality through mindset), the Tetris Effect (training your brain to spot patterns of possibility), falling up (finding the path out of failure), the Zorro Circle (focusing on small, manageable goals to gain control over the bigger picture), the 20-second rule (reducing barriers to change with small energy adjustments), and social investment (relying on social support to overcome challenges).

- Evidence-Based Strategies: Achor provides practical, evidence-based strategies for increasing happiness and productivity. These include gratitude exercises, the practice of positive journaling, exercise, meditation, and fostering social connections.

- Applications in the Workplace: The book also delves into how organizations can apply these principles to create happier and more productive work environments. Achor discusses how positive leadership and a culture that prioritizes happiness can lead to significant improvements in job satisfaction, engagement, and performance.

From a professional standpoint, especially for someone with a background in psychology and business, "The Happiness Advantage" offers valuable insights into how positive psychological practices can be leveraged for personal growth and organizational improvement. The book supports the idea that fostering a positive mindset and happiness in individuals can lead to more profound success and fulfillment, not just in their personal lives but also in their professional endeavors. Achor’s work is a testament to the power of positive psychology in transforming workplaces and enhancing leadership effectiveness, making it a valuable resource for consultants aiming to drive positive change in organizations.

Read more

Dr. David Farrar

Key insights into how to be happy based in solid psychological research

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2024
"The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life" by Shawn Achor is a compelling book that turns traditional thinking about happiness and success on its head. Based on positive psychology principles and research, Achor proposes that happiness is not just a result of success but a precursor to it. Here’s a summary of key concepts and insights from the book, which I find particularly relevant and insightful:

- Positive Psychology at Work: Achor, who spent over a decade at Harvard University studying happiness, draws on his own research and that of others in the field of positive psychology to argue that a positive mindset can significantly increase motivation, efficiency, resilience, creativity, and, ultimately, success in the workplace.

- The Happiness Advantage: The core idea of the book is that individuals who cultivate a positive mindset experience a 'happiness advantage'. This advantage manifests as enhanced brain function, which in turn leads to better problem-solving abilities, creativity, and job performance. Achor presents seven principles that individuals can use to improve their happiness and success rates.

- Seven Principles: These principles include the power of positive psychology, the fulcrum and the lever (changing your experience of reality through mindset), the Tetris Effect (training your brain to spot patterns of possibility), falling up (finding the path out of failure), the Zorro Circle (focusing on small, manageable goals to gain control over the bigger picture), the 20-second rule (reducing barriers to change with small energy adjustments), and social investment (relying on social support to overcome challenges).

- Evidence-Based Strategies: Achor provides practical, evidence-based strategies for increasing happiness and productivity. These include gratitude exercises, the practice of positive journaling, exercise, meditation, and fostering social connections.

- Applications in the Workplace: The book also delves into how organizations can apply these principles to create happier and more productive work environments. Achor discusses how positive leadership and a culture that prioritizes happiness can lead to significant improvements in job satisfaction, engagement, and performance.

From a professional standpoint, especially for someone with a background in psychology and business, "The Happiness Advantage" offers valuable insights into how positive psychological practices can be leveraged for personal growth and organizational improvement. The book supports the idea that fostering a positive mindset and happiness in individuals can lead to more profound success and fulfillment, not just in their personal lives but also in their professional endeavors. Achor’s work is a testament to the power of positive psychology in transforming workplaces and enhancing leadership effectiveness, making it a valuable resource for consultants aiming to drive positive change in organizations.

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Cindy Vargas
Great book
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2025
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
If you're looking for a book that will inspire, motivate, and equip you to live a happier, more fulfilling life, then 'The Happiness Advantage' is a must-read. It's a book that will make you think, make you feel, and ultimately, make you act - in the best possible way

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Ian Mann
you’ll be happy. The success could be the raise in your ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2017
Verified Purchase
This book, published six years ago, succinctly captures seven principles that will enhance anyone’s work life. While many of the ideas are found elsewhere, this is an engaging summary account. If you take the advice to heart, you will have a distinct advantage in the workplace. I will share just three principles.

The first is the debunking of a myth. The myth is that if you work hard, you can achieve success in your chosen field, and once you achieve success, you’ll be happy. The success could be the raise in your salary or position in the organization, status or great wealth.

Ground-breaking research in the fields of positive psychology and neuroscience, has demonstrated unequivocally that there is a relationship between success and happiness - however not in the direction we commonly assume.

Meta-analysis of happiness research of over 200 scientific studies on nearly 275,000 people, demonstrates that happiness leads to success in nearly every area of our lives, from marriage to health, and more specifically in our careers and businesses.

Success does not lead to happiness; happiness leads to success! Success is not the cause of happiness: it is the result of happiness as evidenced by literally thousands of scientific studies. This explains the title of the book – The Happiness Advantage.

One simple illustration was an experiment with 4-year olds that demonstrated the positive effects of happiness on solving puzzles. Some of the children were first asked to recall events that made them happy, and the others were simply asked to solve the puzzle. In the lives of 4-year olds, the event that made them happy was recalling the jelly they had at lunch, and this made them more successful. Similarly, happy recollections had a positive effect on the accuracy of doctors doing a complex diagnosis!

Finding anything in your day at work that makes you feel happier will make you more productive. While this may seem simplistic, the scientific evidence is unassailable, and it would be ridiculous not to use this insight. That is why sophisticated companies cultivate working environments where employees experience small bursts of happiness - sharing birthday cake or a quick game of pool.

You too could do this in your business.

Another principle for improving happiness and consequently success, Achor calls ‘the Tetris Effect’.
In one study students played Tetris, (a shape-forming computer game,) for hours. For days after the study, some participants literally couldn’t stop seeing the world as sets of Tetris shapes, from books on tables to actually dreaming about shapes falling from the sky.

This effect is called a “cognitive afterimage,” very similar to the dots in your vision seconds after someone takes a flash-photograph of you.

Achor describes work he had been doing with the tax accountant KPMG, to help their tax auditors and managers become happier. These are people who spend 8 to 14 hours a day finding errors in tax forms and like the students who had played Tetris, their brains were becoming wired to look for mistakes. “When they went home to their families, they noticed only the C’s on their kids’ report cards, never the A’s.”

The problem is being unable to compartmentalize abilities: athletes who can’t stop competing with their friends or families, and managers who can’t stop micromanaging their children’s lives. This is the negative Tetris Effect.

Imagine a way of seeing that constantly picked up on the positives in every situation - the Positive Tetris Effect: “Instead of creating a cognitive pattern that looks for negatives and blocks success, it trains our brains to scan the world for the opportunities and ideas, that allow our success rate to grow.”

Armed with positivity, the brain is open to possibility. “We can train our brains to let in these messages that make us more adaptive, more creative, and more motivated—messages that allow us to spot and pounce on more opportunities at work,” Achor explains.

A now well-known study of the U.S. MetLife insurance agents, found that the more positive agents sold 37% more insurance than the more negative ones. When the company committed to hire agents picked solely on the basis of their positive thinking style, these agents out-sold their more negative colleagues by 21% in their first year of work, and by 57% in their second.

The best way to kick-start this process is by listing the good things in your work and your life, daily. “In just five minutes a day, this trains the brain to become more skilled at noticing and focusing on possibilities for personal and professional growth, and seizing opportunities to act on them.”

Achor’s ‘Social Investment’ happiness principle, is putting time and effort into friends, peers, and family members, probably our greatest single asset class.

When disaster and collapse happened in the financial world in 2008, traders didn’t retreat to the stronghold of their teams in bars and coffee shops, as they normally did after a day of trading. They all walked off silent and alone. “At the very time that they needed one another most, they were forgoing their most valuable resource: their social support,” Achor notes.

It is so easy and common to retreat into our own shells at the very moment when we most need to be reaching out to others. However, the most successful people, instead of turning inward, hold more tightly to their social support. These people are not only happier, but they are more productive, energetic, and resilient.

The Harvard Men study, a 70-year study of 268 of Harvard freshmen in the late 1930s to the present, demonstrated that our relationships with other people matter more than anything else in the world. Bar none. When we have a spouse, family, friends, or colleagues we can count on, we multiply our emotional, intellectual, and physical abilities, recover from setbacks faster, and accomplish more.

In another study researching the characteristics of the happiest 10% of people, one characteristic stood out above all others: the strength of their social relationships.

If you must cut out some part of life to cope with the demands on your time, your social connections should be the last on the list. “When set adrift, it seems, those of us who hold on to our raftmates, not just our rafts, are the ones who will stay afloat,” says Achor pithily.

The value of this book lies in the specific, actionable, and proven principles that predict success and achievement, and that can and should be incorporated into one’s life. Doing so will give you the “happiness advantage” that has been proven to increase success.

Readability Light --+-- Serious
Insights High -+--- Low
Practical High -+--- Low

*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.

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Andrew D Wright
the psychological effort of humanity was focused Eeyore like on the negative side of our mental lives
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2016
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How many times have you read this; This book will change your life.

Ahem, well, actually this book will change your life if you let it. Building on the work of Martin Seligman at Penn State University, Shawn Achor is one of the new young turks in psychology taking the findings of positive psychology and applying them to business and everyday life. These ideas are quite revolutionary, as is the whole of positive psychology predicated as it is on using what we know about our brains to enable us to use them more effectively. Before positive psychology came along, the psychological effort of humanity was focused Eeyore like on the negative side of our mental lives, exploring all of the things that could go wrong with the complex human mind. Mental illness and psychology were basically synonyms, with the medical disciplines fetishising when brains go wrong over applying its understandings in a more balanced, life-affirming way. Positive psychology restores that balance, acknowledging that there's a lot we can do in weeding our own mental garden in a manner that means we live as happy a life as possible. In fact, the premise of Shawn's wonderful book is that - happiness doesn't follow success, it is the other way round. We are, Achor says (and he backs his assertions up with buckets of evidence and examples) more likely to be successful when we are positive and happy - up to 30% more successful - because brains in a positive state are more imaginative, responsive and flexible.

The book contains 7 basic principles which Achor calls the Happiness Advantage. He is a persuasive and entertaining writer and public speaker, his TED talk is here and as you can see his work is gaining a lot of attention (12 million hits and counting). The principles range from considering our everyday interactions with people through to re-setting our negative defaults to sift the environment for positive things that if our moods instead of simply worrying about what might or mightn't happen in the future. I have a copy of this book and also an audio-copy which I use in work and with some of the people I support.

The book is replete with fantastic insights and ideas. The 7 principles being;

1. The Happiness Advantage - Being happy gives you an edge or an advantage in terms of achieving success so happiness should be our focus, not success. Achor calls this the Copernican revolution in psychology, happiness leading to success instead of the mistaken beliefs we have about success making us happy.

2. The Fulcrum and the Lever - Re-calibrating our mental responses toward the positive will move our internal psychological fulcrum giving us much greater leverage with a brain singing with positive neurotransmitters rather than one paralysed by negativity, doubt and worry.

3. The Tetris Effect - Basically, this is neuroplasticity (the tendency of the human brain to change and adapt neural networks dependent on what we are doing) in action, we are what we repeatedly do. If we play Tetris for long enough everything block-like in the real-world can appeal to our Tetris habituated brain as a shape within the remit of the game and we can find ourselves trying to fit blocks together out in the real-world, blocks made of fences, walls, buildings or bricks just we happen to be passing. If we tip of brains response towards the positive we will see opportunity and creativity where before we might have seen challenge and stress. (On this point Kelly McGonigal in her wonderful TED talk makes a similar point.)

4. Falling Up - This is a fascinating chapter all about how we can reset our daily to defaults to maximise our happiness experiences, such pearls of wisdom here. Quick happiness wins we can all build into our daily experience to lift our subjective experience toward the positive.

5. The Zorro Circle - This is about being very clear and focused about what you want to achieve everyday and ensuring you do your very best by building the skills which enable you to achieve those daily goals.

6. The 20 Second Rule - This takes forward the examples from Principle 4 and gives many examples of how we can prime our default responses to ensure we overcome any inertia around changing bad habits, for example, if we want to jog first thing in the morning, go to bed wearing Gym clothes.

7 - Social Investment - As social animals this principle acknowledges the importance of making strong, supportive connections with others (colleagues and friends) in ensuring we maximise our happiness.

All in all one of the best development, self-help books I've read in a while. Heartily recommended and I will be spending several years implementing its suggestions in terms of leading and managing successful teams at my work-place and convincing colleagues to do the same.

***** (Five Stars)

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Paula Pinto
practical tools to happiness
Reviewed in Brazil on October 1, 2024
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
The author’s sense of humor makes this book so enjoyable. It is dense and packed with information - which can be challenging to get through. However, if you focus on all the practical tools and the life changing information, it gets more exciting as you envision all the changes you can make in your life!

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Gabriele
Il giusto mindset
Reviewed in Italy on August 7, 2023
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Forse non tutte le tecniche descritte per essere felici sono efficaci ma il principio di cercare di essere felici in modo che questo ci porti poi al successo e' portentoso.... Ne ho regalate
decine di copie a amici e collaboratori.

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Julian
Beschadigd boek
Reviewed in the Netherlands on December 3, 2023
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Boek is helaas beschadigd aangekomen

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Julian

Beschadigd boek

Reviewed in the Netherlands on December 3, 2023
Boek is helaas beschadigd aangekomen

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Peculiar Joseph
Happy with it
Reviewed in Belgium on January 23, 2025
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No regret at all

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Key insights into how to be happy based in solid psychological research

Great book

you’ll be happy. The success could be the raise in your ...

the psychological effort of humanity was focused Eeyore like on the negative side of our mental lives

practical tools to happiness

Il giusto mindset

Beschadigd boek

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