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Related: About this forumHappiness Makes Your Brain Work Better
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A Harvard psychology researcher explains that rather than thinking of success as the source of happiness, we should think of happiness as a source of success--and one that's more under our control than we imagine.
Entrepreneurs, in general, are strivers. We set targets, battle to meet them, and believe that getting to that point, whatever it is, will bring us increased satisfaction. But according to one positive psychology researcher out of Harvard, as commonsensical as this tendency to chase achievement in order to attain greater happiness may sound, it's actually got the equation reversed.
In a fascinating (and funny) TEDxBloomington talk, Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, argues that while we may think success will bring us happiness, the lab-validated truth is that happiness brings us more success. And understanding this is particularly valuable for entrepreneurs, Achor said in an interview. Business owners, he said, need to,
Reverse the happiness and success formula. We think if we work harder and achieve some entrepreneurial goal, then we'll be happier. But the research is clear that every time you have a success, your brain changes what success means. So for you and for your team, if happiness is on the opposite side of success, you'll never get there. But if you increase your levels of happiness in the midst of a challengein the midst of searching for investment, in the midst of a down economywhat we find is that all of your success rates rise dramatically every business outcomes improves.
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http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/happiness-makes-your-brain-work-better.html
JNathanK
(185 posts)Happiness and contentment has a lot of advantages.
saras
(6,670 posts)from David Yaffe
The articles definitions of "happiness" and "success" are exactly those that you would expect Inc. magazine to have, and there is no room for goals higher up the hierarchy of needs.
"what we find is that all of your success rates rise dramatically every business outcomes improves."
"business outcomes" are between 0.01% and 0.02% of the things that matter in my life. No amount of change in them, in any way whatsoever, is going to significantly impact my happiness.
"happiness leads to greater levels of profits."
They clearly have a PROFOUNDLY different definition of happiness than I do.