The Power of Happiness
What are the characteristics that lead to someone’s success? Is it talent, hard work, good looks, the correct connections, or something else? These characteristics are important to your career, but happiness is critical. Satisfied and happy individuals are more likely to be successful.
In this post, we’ll explore
- Why happiness is important;
- What happiness affects our lives;
- How happiness affects our personal and professional success.
First, let’s take a look at why being happy matters…
Happiness Really Matters
If you’re satisfied, your brain will function at its best—and that means you’ll perform better in every area of your life. People who are depressed aren’t only less productive at work, they tend to make worse decisions and find themselves caught up in a downward spiral that brings more misery into their lives. Happiness matters because it increases our ability to think, learn, create and remember, explains Daniel Gilbert in his book Stumbling on Happiness. In short: if you’re not happy, it might be time for a change.
Here are four quick happiness boosters from social psychologist Shawn Achor:
- Work on appreciating others around you;
- Smile when no one is looking;
- Meditate for two minutes a day;
- Tell someone why you appreciate them.
How the Power of Happiness Affects Our Lives
Happy people tend to be more successful in a variety of areas. Happy people are generally healthier, wealthier, and happier. What’s the reason for this? While it’s not entirely understood how happiness affects us, there are several places where our emotional well-being matters. Happiness has an impact on nearly every area of life—therefore, it is important to understand how happiness works and why happiness matters.
Happiness at Work: People with a positive outlook tend to be more creative. They also generate more ideas than their pessimistic peers and hold on to these ideas for longer before discarding them. This creativity leads people to embrace change better, go along with new ideas better, and see other alternatives that pessimists miss.
Happiness and Health: Happy people tend to have a lower resting heart rate than those who are not happy. They also have a healthier immune system and show fewer signs of wear and tear from stress—cortisol levels decrease as happiness levels increase, which is key for warding off stress.
The Power of Happiness and Wealth: Happy individuals are more content with their lives, making them more inclined to make decisions that will be beneficial to them in the long term—such as investing or saving for retirement. They also feel better about their job experience and are less influenced by sales pressure than those who are unhappy.
Happy Individuals Are More Successful
Happy people are usually more successful. You may believe that success is dependent on intellect or talent, but in actuality, happiness might have a far greater impact on your performance than any other element, including intellect. If you want to be successful, it’s critical to first comprehend what happiness is all about.
Happiness is subjective and personal. What makes you happy will not necessarily make someone else happy. As a result, it’s impossible to precisely define happy, but some things are often associated with being happy. Happiness is essentially an emotion, so it can include positive emotions like joy, contentment, excitement, optimism, and amusement. It also includes negative emotions like love-induced happiness (dopamine), sadness, or anger (stress hormones).
While positive emotions tend to correlate with increased motivation and creativity – negative emotions don’t help us perform at our best. Happiness has also been linked to better mental health, lower risk of disease, higher life expectancy, and improved performance in school/work/sports. Happiness may have many different definitions. Whatever your definition of happiness, make time for activities that make you happy! Happiness has several advantages when it comes to business success – because being happier helps you push yourself to do your best in every area of your life!
We hope this post helps you understand the power of happiness in your life!
Additional Resource: Happiness Starts With You Course
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