Common wisdom holds that if we just get that promotion, lose a few pounds, reach our goals, then we’ll be successful, and happiness will follow as a result.
In The Happiness Advantage (2010), Shawn Achor argues that although we normally think of happiness arising as a result of success, the opposite is actually true: success follows happiness. He details seven different principles of positive psychology, recounts various psychological studies that led to these insights, and then connects these principles to how they might translate into success in the workplace. Interesting insights include the idea that people who believe they are lucky actually are better attuned to seeing opportunities than the average person, that having strong social bonds predicts success and ability to cope with stress, that with effort and gratitude we can literally rewire our brains to be more optimistic, and that positivity is a greater predictor of success than skill or intelligence.
This is a great example of the rare pop-psychology book without very much “fluff”. It is up there for me with James Clear’s Atomic Habits and Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead as books that really have probably changed my whole outlook on life and have certainly changed the way I approach my work.
My only complaint is a small one: Achor’s constant references to being a grad student at Harvard do come across as increasingly insecure after the fourth or fifth mention. Still, this is a relatively small gripe for a book that has probably changed my whole outlook on life.
