What is happiness?
What is true happiness?
Positive psychology expert Shawn Achor spent 12 years at Harvard University researching the topic of happiness.
The conclusion he came to after all that time is that ‘Happiness is a choice, and one that few people seem to make’.
As you would think ‘giving someone everything they could ask for (in the yachting world, that would seem like the case for most of our guests), that they would be happy, or much happier than say the crew or someone in poverty. But as we have all seen and experienced, that is not necessarily the case.
Shawn Achor’s research is fascinating, “90% of happiness is a mystery to scientists because only 10% of happiness can be predicted by the external world”. He states that “90% of long-term happiness is based upon how your brain is processing the world you find yourself in.” Which would show why even when we do all the things we would think make us happier (ie eating ice-cream, buying new things, or doing things that provide instant pleasure), only give short term happiness, but in the long run, we don’t feel happy overall.
So what is happiness?
We need to understand what happiness is - and is not, to see the world through a different lens. Shawn said that we often confuse “temporary pleasure with true happiness”. He found that through his research at Harvard, when students were relying upon academic grades to make them happy, that the feelings over perfect results were only short-lived, and not sustained over a longer time, and that the student then was discontent until another A was achieved.
Also, they found that the pleasures released in something as simple as eating an ice cream, pleased the brain initially, but then caused the brain to crave more to become satisfied, and then the pleasure was only momentary.
Shawn refers to the ancient Greek definition of the emotion “(They) defined happiness as the joy you feels moving toward your potential,” he says. “It changes the pursuit of happiness from a momentary thing to something you can experience even when life isn’t pleasurable, like during childbirth or a long run.” And joy, unlike pleasure, isn’t fleeting. “It’s a transformative emotion instead of one that you try and grab hold of and then watch slip through your fingers like pleasure,” he explains. Better yet, joy can be experienced over an extended time—even under some pretty dire circumstances.
What do I need to be happy?
Shawn then travelled around the world, and observed more than 50 different cultures and grounds and found that the happiest people had 2 things in common.
They all had a profound sense of optimism. “They thought no matter what happened up to this point, things will get better if they keep trying”.
Social connection - was the greatest predictor of enduring happiness. “the breadth, depth, and meaning in the social relationships were so strong that even during chaos, they could still find meaning and joy within their lives”.
So social connections and positive or an optimistic outlook is good, but can it be achieved all the time, especially when you are dealing with so much negativity within the world?
On a global scale, things like Climate Change, World Politics can be enough to put anyone in a negative state, or down to the smaller and closer level, boat politics within different departments, or even within your department can be enough to put anyone in a negative mood. And sometimes trying to have social connections isn’t that easy when you are at sea with the same few people, or you don’t have close connections to those on your boat.
However, Shawn insists all of that can be changed. “Happiness is not something you inherit,” he says. “It’s something you cultivate.”
So, how do I create happiness?
Over time scientists and researchers have said the greatest predictors of happiness are in our genes and our environments, however, Shawn has discovered a third way to joy - that says we are the creators of our happiness.
Practising gratitude daily - for example finding 3 things to be grateful for each day. Doing this over 21 days can rewire a pessimistic brain to become dramatically more positive! (that’s got to be pretty good for all of us.
Improving and expanding your social connections - by sending a positive message each day to a different person (or doing an act of kindness daily) has extremely high levels of improvement on the brain.
Exercising daily - whether that is an intensive exercise or something as simple as stretching or going for a walk.
Mediation and mindfulness - and this doesn’t have to be sitting cross-legged humming. But just paying attention to your breath, and being mindful of your behaviours and actions (paying attention to the process of eating can make a meal far more pleasurable - and when done routinely will create a more positive impact on the brain).
Journaling - writing about a positive experience that has happened during the day allows your brain to relive that experience.
What does this do in my general life?
Doing these exercises increases positivity within the brain and as Shawn explains “We have higher levels of intelligence, it triples our level of creativity, and increases our ability to solve problems when the brain is positive.”
And in today’s ever-competitive marketplace, optimism is an advantage. “Optimism is the greatest predictor of entrepreneurial success,” says Shawn. “It allows your brain to see possibilities where no one else does.”
Increasing your social connection becomes invaluable because it adds more meaning to a person’s life, which as his research states leads to a 31% increase in productive energy, a 37% increase in sales, and a 40% increase in the likelihood of a promotion.
Is success of measure of happiness?
Although happiness can lead to more success in your work and personal life, Shawn notes that success itself is not an indicator of happiness. “The problem is success is a moving target for the human brain,” he says. “If happiness is on the opposite side of success for you—if that’s how you’re motivating yourself—you’re limiting both your success and happiness because your brain never actually gets to happiness.”
What now?
Well the good news is that mindset is reversible, and thoughts are just thoughts, that can be changed by you.
If you start to implement things such as mindfulness, mediation, exercise, journaling into your daily practice, your brain will naturally and chemically start to become more positive, and therefore happier.
Look within rather than looking for external validation by buying things, or looking getting temporary quick fixes.
Let me know what you think.
If you would like to watch Shawn Achors talk on this please go to this link
https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work/up-next?int_cmpgn=No_Campaign&int_dept=entreleadership_bu&int_lctn=entre_blog_article_text&int_fmt=text&int_dscpn