The Secret to Happiness at Work and Beyond

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up and immediately want to dive back into bed? You’re barely up for five minutes, and a long list of things you really don’t want to tackle starts running through your brain.

By mid-day (or maybe sooner!), you’re ready to throw in the towel. If the day was more productive, you would be so much happier…or at least you think it would. Read on for a different perspective…

Be Happy to Work Better

In an inspiring TED Talk, psychologist Shawn Achor shares his perspectives on the happy secret to better work, suggesting that happiness actually inspires productivity. Shawn explains how 90% of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world.

What’s more, just 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ, while 75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support, and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a menace.

Most organizations around the world today follow a formula of success that looks something like this: If you work harder, you’ll be more successful. When you’re more successful, naturally you’ll be happier, right?

Wrong, according to Shawn, who says that this formula is “scientifically broken and backwards”. Instead, he suggests, our brains work in the opposite order – if you raise a person’s positivity level in the present, his brain will experience what’s called a “happiness advantage”, meaning that the brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral, or stressed.

With this fresh perspective in mind, I want to talk about what’s draining your energy – and what you can do to get it back – in the next couple paragraphs.

What’s Stealing Your Energy?

Go back to the first paragraph where I gave an example of a day like we’ve all had at one time or another – you know, one of those days where it just seems easier to throw in the towel and start again the next morning.

Think about a time when this happened to you. This is how you’ll identify your energy vampires. Ask yourself these questions:

• What was going through my mind that made me dread that day?
• Was I dreading going to work? Was I dreading something after work? If so, what was I not looking forward to?
• As I went through my day, what brought down my mood even more?

Get SPECIFIC here. Don’t settle for a vague answer. You owe it to yourself to identify your energy vampires by making a list of all the things that you are tolerating.

How to Get Your Energy Back

Your energy is being eaten up by the things you are tolerating. What this means is that if there is something in your life that goes against your values – and you tolerate it – you need to use a LOT of your energy to make it ok.

In real life, what does this look like? Sometimes, it’s you saying “yes” when what you really want to say is “no”. It can also be spending time around negative people, listening to (or participating in) gossip, allowing yourself to be taken advantage of, or putting up with other people who don’t honor their commitments, just to name a few.

You may also be tolerating something that’s been going on with your body – an ache or pain – that needs to be checked out. Have you been tolerating your finances, your health, or your relationships, even though you know they need attention?

Once you identify what’s been consuming your energy, you will need to resolve each of those things, one by one. For most people, this part can be challenging.

You need to schedule those appointments, have that tough conversation, or otherwise make the changes that you know are going to help you re-align with your values.

Sometimes even the simplest changes will help you regain the energy you’ve been missing for so long.

Train Your Brain

Shawn explains that you can actually train your brain to become more positive. He says that in a short, two-minute duration done for 21 consecutive days, you can actually rewire your brain, allowing it to begin working more optimistically and successfully.

How? He has people write down three new things that make them feel grateful for 21 days in a row, and at the end of that timespan, their brains start to retain a pattern of scanning the world for the positive – not the negative – first.

I know this can be challenging – when you’re feeling overwhelmed and ready to throw in the towel, it can be difficult to feel grateful for much of anything. It’s also tempting to just keep neglecting all those things that need your attention.

Just remind yourself how worth it all your efforts will be when you’re finally flooded with all the positive energy you’ve been missing.

What is one of your biggest “energy vampires”? Share your comments below!