305-How Does Your Brain Process The World?

Happiness expert Shawn Anchor says that 90% of our long term happiness is predicted by the way our brain processes the world.  So what does that mean?  We discuss his findings today. 

 

Transcript:

 

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2-ish minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and Shawn Anchor, New York Times Bestselling Author, talks a lot about happiness in the workplace.  In his viral Ted Talk, he shared that his research indicates that 10% of your predicted long-term happiness is your surroundings and 90% of your long term happiness is predicted by the way your brain processes the world.  

 

He goes on to say that he’s found that 75% of your job success is based on your optimism, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat.  Only 25% is actually based on IQ. 

 

He has a fascinating idea that the absence of disease is not health.  The absence of happiness is not sadness.  He argues we need to reverse the formula of happiness and success.  He thinks the concept of working harder = being more successful = then I will be happier, is the wrong way to approach life.   What happens is we achieve the milestone and our brain puts out a new milestone.  Hit that sales goal, now move the goalpost. Get into that great school, now get into another one.  

 

The real problem is that our brains work in the opposite order. We want to be happy in the moment, that’s the advantage - the success edge.  When our brains are positive, they perform better than when they are negative, neutral or stressed.   His research indicates that your brain at positive is 31% more productive than you are if your brain is negative, neutral or stressed.  That’s 31% better in sales, but that’s also 31% better for doctors and other professions where our lives are on the line. 

 

What if we reverse the formula. How do we actually do it? That's what we are going to dive into tomorrow.  How we train our brains to become more positive.  

 

 

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