Author Shawn Achor has written a fascinating book, The Happiness Advantage, that argues that success is the result of happiness and not vice-versa. Achor presents us with seven principles that demonstrate how we can leverage the Happiness Advantage to improve our productivity and maximize our potential.

What is most interesting about Achor’s book is that it is backed up by research from neuroscience. Recent findings about the human brain are the foundation of an emerging field called neuroleadership and are scattered throughout the book. I have highlighted some of Achor’s references in this blog:

  • “It turns out that our brains are literally hardwired to perform at their best not when they are negative or even neutral, but when they are positive.”
  • Positive emotions flood our brains with dopamine and serotonin, chemicals that not only help us feel good, but dial up the learning centers of our brains to higher levels. They help us organize new information, keep that information in the brain longer and retrieve it faster later on. And they enable us to make and sustain more neural connections, which allows us to think more quickly and creatively, become more skilled at complex analysis and problem solving, and see and invent ways of doing things.”
  • “Neuroscientists have found that monks who spend years meditating actually grow their left prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most responsible for feeling happy.”
  • “Our brains are like single processors capable of devoting only a finite amount of resources to experiencing the world. Because our brain’s resources are limited, we are left with a choice: to use those finite resources to see only pain, negativity, stress and uncertainty, or to use those resources to look at things through a lens of gratitude, hope, resilience, optimism and meaning. In other words, while we of course can’t change reality through sheer force of will alone, we can use our brain to change how we process the world, and that it turn changes how we react to it.”
  • “Expectations create brain patterns that can be just as real as those created by events in the real world. In other words, the expectation of an event causes the same complex set of neurons to fire as though the event were actually taking place, triggering a cascade of events in the nervous system that leads to a whole host of real physical consequences.”
  • “Just as our brains can be wired in ways that hold us back, we can retrain them to scan for the good things in life – to help us see more possibility, to feel more energy and to succeed at higher levels. The first step is understanding just how much of what we see is solely a matter of focus.”
  • “The human brain is constantly creating and revising mental maps to help us navigate our way through this complex and ever-changing world…By scanning our mental map for positive opportunities and by rejecting the belief that every down in life leads us only further downward, we give ourselves the greatest power possible: the ability to move up not despite the setbacks, but because of them.”
  • “Psychologists have found that gains in productivity, happiness and health have less to do with how much control we actually have and more with how much control we think we have.”
  • “Many widely different forms of self-control draw on a common resource, or self-control strength, which is quite limited and hence can be depleted readily. Put another way, our willpower weakens the more we use it.”
  • “Self-control is a limited resource that gets weakened with overuse. Well, these same researchers discovered that too much choice similarly saps our reserves.Their studies showed that with every additional choice people are asked to make, their physical stamina, ability to perform numerical calculations, persistence in the face of failure and overall focus drop dramatically.”
  • “Evolutionary psychologists explain that the innate need to affiliate and form social bonds has been literally wired into our biology. When we make a positive social connection, a pleasure-inducing hormone oxytocin is released into our bloodstream, immediately reducing anxiety and improving concentration and focus.”
  • “Neuroscience has revealed that when we make eye contact with someone, it actually sends a signal to the brain that triggers empathy and rapport.”
  • “Positive emotional contagion starts when people subconsciously mimic the body language, tone of voice and facial expressions of those around them. Amazing as it might sound, once people mimic the physical behaviors tied to these emotions, it causes them to feel the emotion themselves. Smiling, for instance, tricks your brain into thinking you’re happy, so it starts producing the neurochemicals that actually do make you happy.”

The idea that happiness results in success and that we can control our brains to be happy is a life-changing lesson – all backed up by neuroscience.