A Review of The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

The Happiness Advantage

Everyone has heard the old expression of “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”.  This is an expression with nothing but positivity in intent, but it does not include the full narrative of how one should arrive at that point.  If someone loves to write and wants to become a writer as their job, it takes a lot of work and consistency to even be able to turn a profit on a novel or whatever writing project they make.  To put it simply, we all know that the expression is not necessarily true.  Work is a necessary part of life no matter the kind.  Shawn Achor dismantles this sentiment in his book The Happiness Advantage.

As opposed to using work and wealth to make us happy, why not instead invest in becoming happy, separate from our professions?  Through the advent of positive psychology and what we know about human tendencies, Achor deconstructs the ubiquitous formula for happiness we learn through traditional media, and also lists ways to improve our overall mental health and the mental health of those around us.  Anyone who is in any position to work with others in an office environment or is in a leadership position should read this book as it will completely change your outlook on your career.

What Sets It Apart

The book’s primary aim is to improve personal happiness and mental health with brief spotlights on how to improve the energy of those around you as well.  He divides the concepts into 7 major principles that each uniquely improve outlook on situations and thinking problems.

• • The Happiness Advantage – retrain our brains to capitalize on positivity and improve productivity and performance.
  • The Fulcrum and the Lever –adjust our mindset (fulcrum) to give us the power (lever) to be more fulfilled and satisfied.
  • The Tetris Effect – spot patterns of possibility to see and seize opportunities wherever we look.
  • Falling Up – finding the mental path that leads up and out of failure and teaches us how to be happier and more successful from it.
  • The Zorro Circle – regain emotional control when overwhelmed by challenges by focusing on small manageable goals and gradually expanding our circle.
  • The 20-Second Rule – by making small energy adjustments we can reroute the path of least resistance and replace bad habits with good ones.
  • Social Investment – avoid retreating within ourselves during tough times and invest more in building our social support network to propel ourselves forward.

The writing of the book comes off light hearted and casual, which is refreshing and reflective of the tone.  A lot of books about similar topics can have a mightier than thou tone, but this one places the author in the same standing as any reader, even with his Harvard level credentials.  As far as self help books goes, this particular work is not in the same category.  A lot of the clichés of those types of literature are even addressed and worded in a more positive light that any leader would love to include in their daily language.

Overall this book is a game changer simply for its content alone and I could not recommend it more to those who may have trouble with the self help genre, or those who are simply looking to dive into a new school of thinking for themselves.

Click to buy The Happiness Advantage here