Thoughts on The Happiness Advantage

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

Introduction

I just finished reading The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor who is a corporate speaker and researcher on happiness. I had low expectations going into the book, but it surprised me with some new actionable ideas to apply to my own life. The thing I enjoyed most were all the little anecdotes showcasing how simple things can lead to people feeling happier. The stories gave me a lot of inspiration and led to a lot of thoughts of “maybe things aren’t so bad” trickling into my mind.

As I write this article and do more research on it, I’ve found that there are some criticisms of his work from other happiness researchers. Overall it seems like most of the claims are valid, but it’s important to view this book as more of a toolbox. If you see something you agree with, then go ahead and use it. For tools that don’t fit your life, work on being open to using them in the future but don’t try to force them in. That thinking is how I’ve progressed myself the most in my personal, professional, and social life. When I learn a principle that resonates with me I apply it immediately, but when one doesn’t I still think about it and try to adapt it to work for myself.

Seven principles summary

Principle 1: The Happiness Advantage

Positive brains work better so you should retrain your brain to capitalize on positivity.
Those who are happiest perform the best in different areas of their lives.
Those who are surrounded by others who are happier tend to be happier too. Those managed by happy bosses are more likely to look forward to work and do better at their jobs.
The simple presence of people or things that make us unhappy can have large negative impacts on our work
When people are primed with positive thinking they tend to do better.
Practice acts of kindness especially for others.
Buying things for others can help a lot compared to buying things for ourselves.
When buying things invest in experiences rather than just physical objects.
Exercise to help release endorphins and boost mood.
Focus on the present.
Plan things for yourself to look forward to.
Cut out negative things from your life such as the news. Work on journaling about the positives from your day. Don’t focus on the negatives.
Remind yourself of your talents and practice them.
Sometimes happiness can be a choice and a practice rather than just an ephemeral emotional state.
Happiness fuels success.

Principle 2: Fulcrum and Lever

Adjust our mindset (fulcrum) in a way that gives us the power (lever) to be more fulfilled and successful.
Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset. Growth mindset believes they can change their traits. When you have a growth mindset you seek out new things. You’re more resilient to change. You are more likely to find opportunities. Fixed mindset
Pygmalion effect: higher expectations lead to improved performance.
Our view of the world and interpretation of it is what creates our reality which means we can change that perspective at will.
When you have expectations of certain outcomes and use those expectations to fuel your actions you are more likely to achieve those expectations than if you were to do the same actions with no expectations.

Principle 3: The Tetris Effect

When we do something on repeat we get good at it and subconsciously apply it to other parts of our lives. For example if you spend all day reviewing code looking for bugs you may come home and unknowingly look for issues when you interact with your significant other.
We also are good at filtering out things that we view as spam. Focusing on a task exacerbates this skill.
Train your brain to focus on the positives and it will naturally filter out the negatives.
Studies showed that those who thought they were unlucky missed opportunities that were seen by those who thought they were lucky.
Personal take: this may explain why the idea of the “law of attraction” actually works. Those who are looking for what they want are more likely to see opportunities to get it. Those opportunities would be available to them regardless, but they only notice them when they are in a headspace to look for them.
One exercise to practice this is to journal three good things from your day every day. This will help train your mind to look for positive things.

Principle 4: Falling Up

When we view failure as growth we are more likely to experience growth.
There is a path that leads to post-traumatic growth when facing great adversity. This is the third path, which differs from going down a negative path (spiraling down) or staying on the same path and never growing.
When people feel helplessness in one area of life they often overlearn and apply the lesson to other parts of their life. This is what leads to learned helplessness.
Those with an optimistic explanatory style (way of explaining things) interpret adversity as temporary and local. Those who have pessimistic explanatory style interpret adversity as global and permanent.
Turn your adversity into an advantage and think about how you can learn from it. Be resilient and you will be able to face greater challenges.

Principle 5: The Zorro Circle

Limiting your focus to small manageable goals can help expand your sphere of power.
Successful people have an internal locus of control. They believe their actions have a direct effect on their outcomes. Unsuccessful people tend to have an external locus of control and think that events in their lives are dictated by external forces. They duck blame for failure and they don’t take credit for the successes.
Writing feelings or verbalizing them is the first step to regaining control.
Set goals that are not so easy that you don’t want to try but not so hard that you give up.
Kaizen is a Japanese word for continuous improvement. Strive to make tiny, incremental changes.
Set a time limit, do the one thing, keep it fixed and then expand it.

Principle 6: The 20 Second Rule

Common sense is not common action. Just because something seems like an obvious choice doesn’t mean we are going to do it. We know eating an entire bag of chips is not as good for us as eating a salad but yet we choose the chips anyway.
Remove the energy needed to do things.
Make good things easy to access and bad things hard to access. If you struggle with getting sucked into TV shows then put the remote on the other side of the house. If you have issues getting your writing done, then put your journal next to the place you eat breakfast. Get creative!
Reduce the choices you have and set rules for yourself. The more options we have the more we face decision fatigue which makes it harder to do the right things.

Successful people hold onto social circles tightly rather than turning inward during hard times.
High emotional support is our offensive line that allows us to keep focused on our goals.
The strength of social relationships is directly correlated to one’s happiness.
The quality of your relationships is more important than the quantity.
Friends, family, and community give a sense of purpose, belonging, and security which is extremely helpful in finding happiness.

My Takeaways

Using the Tetris effect

I think the Tetris effect was the principle I most connected with. It was a great study of something that many less scientific philosophies teach about. There’s mood boards, the law of attraction, and goal affirmations. These all seem like nonsense to a more analytical mind but this principle shows why these may have merit.

Just in my day-to-day life I’ve started to notice how on my good days I tend to encounter more positive life events. The events can be small like finding a dollar on the ground or even bigger like noticing performance optimizations I could make in the code I’m writing.

We have control

I battled a lot of depression throughout my life but as the years go on and I reflect more I continually notice just how much power we have over our emotions. This isn’t to be misconstrued as “just be happy” style advice if going through seriously dark times. However, for a simple bad day I think it can be helpful to realize that you have the ability to change. It’s easy to sink into a feeling of helplessness but with tiny changes you can break out.

The important thing is to work on finding those things. I could probably write an entire article on the coping mechanisms I’ve found for myself. Work on building up your tool set and practice using them. With practice you will realize that you have more control than you once thought.

These tools are present in all the principles. From thinking positive for the Tetris effect to giving yourself easy-to do mood-boosting activities for the 20 second rule and the Zorro circle. There’s lots of ways to interweave the principles to create the framework you need for your life.

No harm in trying

To me the teachings of this book seem to line up with anecdotal ideas and findings I’ve already had. I think most people would probably think the same. While reading there are a lot of thoughts similar to, “Of course people who like their manager work better” or “Well, duh, if you have friends and exercise you are going to be happier”. This book neatly ties those obvious things into memorable principles. The hard thing is remembering to apply them but the easy thing is realizing that you can.

I always enjoy these types of books because for the most part there is no harm in trying out their techniques. Whether you decide to go do 5 minutes of exercise or you give a call to a loved one I implore you to go try something from this article out. See how you feel. Think about what you could use and apply it to your life. You may just end up a bit happier.