Happiness leads to Success, not Success Creates Happiness

I loved what I heard in an interview of Shawn Achor author of Happiness Advantage by Success Magazine owner Darren Hardy. Here are my notes.

Happiness leads to success. Our belief that success leads to happiness is backwards.
The belief that if we just work harder we will be successful doesn’t hold up to research results.
Neurological studies and Positive Psychology research shows that if we raise the brains level of positivity in the present then success rates rise and we work faster, harder and more intelligently.

Our belief system has us living a stressful and overwhelmed life, thinking this will create success which will in turn lead to our happiness. People are starting their day at work in the negative, neutral or stressed level. This old belief isn’t creating success.

People who are happy come to work full and with a positive attitude.

Happy sales people sell 90% more than other sales persons.

One of the 7 principles in the Happiness Advantage book is gratitude.
Positive people in a challenging situation look for the things that make them grateful
and look for more ways to create more meaning, a better future, and to raise their success rates.

The brain is like single processor; it has small amounts of resources for experiencing the world.
If your brain is working on negative perspectives it has no room for finding, positive solutions and experiences.
Happy people train their brain to be grateful.

Happy, successful people have social support networks, the ability to manage stress in a positive way, and are optimistic.

Success indicators

25%  intelligence; education-experience

75%

belief in yourself; that your behaviors matters,

have social support networks; family, friends, peers, office

have positive attitude: stress is viewed as a challenge looking for ways to get over it instead of a bad thing to be avoided.

How to be a happy, successful leader

• recruit positive people ripples out to clients, brains reap happiness advantage, perceived as more trust worthy, charismatic,  more attractive, stay longer at process, positive attitude ripples out to others, increases the chances of the sales happening. Sole entrepreneur surround yourself with positive collaborators, vendors, associates…
• be a positive yourself small changes in attitude can ripple through your network.
• raise you level of frequency of positive praise…
  That energy spreads and raises the success level of the team. Good way to start the day.
• prioritize happiness in the present; make happiness a priority in your life and in your business.
  Make time for social investment, personal refueling in nature, meditation, exercise and self expression (music, art, dance…).
• create social support network.; invest in more social networking when stressed vs thinking that you need to buckle down or put your nose to the grind stone, isolating and thinking negative judgments which creates more stress and you end up alone, unhappy and unsuccessful.

A Yale study showed that a positive and engaged work force is more successful than the number of years of collective experience and intelligence of the team.

• focus on praising the process as well as the outcome. Studies show if you just praise outcome and not the process their sense of self worth to the whole is lowered and they are not happy.

Shawn shared valuable information that all of us can use whether we are part of a team or a sole entrepreneur.
What you believe and how you feel affect how people respond to you, what you attract to you and raises or lowers your chances of success.  Happiness is a choice and there are many things you can do to create more of it in your life.
May I suggest reading Happiness Advantage by Shawn Anchor, change your thinking and habits with the help of a Life Coach, read Success Magazine or start taking action on the steps outlined here! Do something now.

Success starts with you, your happiness, your passion, your purpose, your love, your unique expression of yourself and expands out into your world. You are responsible for cultivating those expressions, attitudes and habits.

Want more information about creating success and happiness in your life?

Call Marilyn O’Malley, CPCC
Transformational Life Coach
805 275-4153
coachmarilyn1@gmail.com