Don't Worry, Be Happy For Better Business Success

A few years ago a simple song with very few words other than "Don't worry, be happy" was a huge hit. It was a fun tune with a catchy beat that few people took seriously. But was there a secret to success buried in that song? Absolutely.

Shawn Achor shares this secret in "The Happy Secret to Better Work." Most people equate happiness with characteristics of their external world. 

They say. "If I could just land that deal, I'd be happy." "If I could just reach my sales goal, I'd be happy." "If I could afford to increase my staff so I didn't have to do everything, I'd be happy." "If I had more time to work out so I could lose weight and be healthier, I'd be happy." And the list goes on and on.

But in reality, even if everything about a person's external world is known, only 10% of their true happiness could be predicted. This is because 90% of a person's long term happiness isn't dependent upon the external world at all, but upon how their brain processes the world, in other words how they view the world through their own personal lens. So why is it important to know how to change our perspective? If we change our formula for happiness and success, we can then change the way we affect reality.
Research has found that

• only 25% of job success is predicted by IQ

• 75% is predicted by a person's optimism, social support and the ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat

When we are happy, relaxed and content there is an abundance of dopamine in our brains. This neurotransmitter unlocks the areas of our brains that are responsible for critical thinking and creativity. This abundance of dopamine, not only makes us happier, it turns on all the learning centers of the brain. 

Therefore, if we start from a base level of "positive" rather than neutral, negative or stressed, our brains function significantly better. A person's intelligence, creativity and energy levels all rise and every single business outcome improves.

At "positive" the brain is

• 31% more productive
• 37% better at sales
• 19% more capable of coming up with correct solutions to problems or challenges

Try this simple two minute exercise for 21 days: write down three new things you are grateful for each day. Don't miss a day! This exercise actually trains or rewires your brain to be more positive. It then works more optimistically and more successfully. At the end of 21 days, your brain will actually retain a pattern of scanning the world first for the positive instead of the negative. Even if you journal about just one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours, you actually relive those positive feelings and this teaches your brain that your behavior matters. As a result, it helps us get over the cultural ADHD of multi-tasking that we all fall into and allows our brains to focus better on the task at hand.

Finally, reach out with a random act of kindness to praise or support someone else in your social network. This creates ripples of positivity and creates a real happiness revolution.