TED Talk Tuesday: The Happy Secret to Better Work

Why are some people extraordinary? Why do some perform so much better at work than others?

Psychologist Shawn Achor, in a 2011 TED Talk, insists it’s not because of IQ or any other widely accepted predictors of intelligence. It’s all about positive psychology.

“We’re finding that it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality.”

When he counseled students at Harvard University, Achor found that no matter how happy they were about being accepted to such a prestigious school, they soon became stressed about competing with other students and staying on top. The goal posts kept moving for them and it was making them miserable.

Nothing is ever good enough under the current system. If you do well, the bar is raised and you have to do even better. “We have pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon,” he says.

There is a science of happiness, Achor says. The external world does not predict happiness; the way your brain processes the world determines your happiness.

“The absence of disease is not health,” he says.

If we raise our levels of positivity, the results are extraordinary, he says. Our brains set at positive result in less work burnout, greater output and less turnover at companies, studies find.

Best of all, being grateful can actually rewire the brain, he says. By journaling about something positive, sending thank-you notes, exercising, meditating and performing random acts of kindness, “we can reverse the formula for happiness and success.”