Are You Happy?
Are you happy? Are you a happy person? What makes you happy? No, really. Are you happy? It turns out happiness is more important than we might originally have thought. Shawn Achor, a Harvard researcher and motivational speaker, wrote a book, The Happiness Advantage, in 2010, and a group of my staff and I are currently reading it for a book study. The study really started with a Ted Talk that I shared during a staff meeting. Achor presents his research on happiness, and I encourage everyone to watch it here . Achor proves that our conventional wisdom of happiness is wrong. We used to think the following: I get paid well, which makes me happy. Therefore, I'm more productive. Research has proven that the formula looks more like: I choose to be happy. My happiness makes me more productive. Therefore, I get paid more. The book reiterates the Ted Talk, but then it goes into further research and practical strategies that everyone can apply to be more happy.