Summary of The Happiness Advantage
The Happiness Advantage a book that I have seen mentioned all over the net, I decided to take the plunge and give it a listen on Audible. The author Shawn Achor preaches positive psychology and is one of TEDx most popular speakers, finding success through happiness and that happiness is a choice rather than just an emotion.
The book outlines some key principles and like most self-help books then goes on to present a number of examples of how a “happiness advantage” can be practised, like where Shawn was brought into large financial institutions to speak about happiness in the midst of the 2008 financial crash and how he managed to show some stockbrokers that had just lost multiple millions that the crash wasn’t such a bad thing for them.
The book speaks a lot about how happiness is a choice rather than just an emotion, you can choose to be happy and its completely up to you to make this choice, good things tend to come to those that are happy and has a cascading effect on you and those you interact with. The book speaks about a “fake it till you make it” approach when everything seems against you you can trick your brain into being happy and over time your mindset will change.
My Takeaways from The Happiness Advantage
I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but I largely already practice much that was mentioned, I am generally a pretty happy guy, I am pretty blessed in life to never to have had to face any adversity, with any I have experienced I’ve overcome without true difficulty or hardship and have climbed my respective career ladder quickly and with relative ease.
Perhaps that means the words that Shawn Achor the author writes about ring true. I am always smiling and can always find the positives in even the biggest negatives where I could be considered an eternal optimist finding the good side in everything where others only see bad or negatives. Sometimes I feel like self-help books like The Happiness Advantage can deliver a point or advice in less than 100 pages then use another 200 filling out the pages to make a book.
Favourite Quotes from The Happiness Advantage
“Each one of us is like that butterfly the Butterfly Effect. And each tiny move toward a more positive mindset can send ripples of positivity through our organizations our families and our communities.” – Shawn Achor
“..the more you believe in your own ability to success the more likely it is that you will.” – Shawn Achor
“Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost. It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation and ability to accomplish goals.” – Shawn Achor
“Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can.” – Shawn Achor
“I started to realize just how much our interpretation of reality changes our experience of that reality.” ― Shawn Achor
Closing Words
I liked The Happiness Advantage, I think I will buy a paper copy for the bookcase for future reference and would definitely recommend giving it a read, it’s not a long book at 256 pages.
The “fake it till you make it” approach to happiness certainly opened my eyes, as well as the smiling for even 15min, will make you feel happier I practised this during my daily dog walks, where I would walk around this streets or in the park grinning with a big smile that went ear to ear and I will admit it felt great.
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