In today’s business world, many believe that happiness is a guaranteed outcome of success.  “When I am successful, I’ll be happy.”  But if that were true, everyone who got a promotion would be happier.  Steve Jobs – the late founder of Apple, multi-millionaire, father and husband — would have been exceedingly happy if success increased happiness.  But that’s not always the case.  People who get promoted are briefly happy but that euphoria quickly wears off under the weight of responsibility in the new position.  Steve Jobs was a notoriously unhappy man.  And many successful people have been known to be very unhappy from artist Vincent Van Gogh to tennis legend Andre Agassi.   Clearly, success does not guarantee happiness.

In fact, research shows that those who relentlessly pursue career success are less happy and also less successful.  Those who prioritize happiness tend to actually be happier and more successful.  That is what Dr. Shawn Achor, Doctorate in Divinity Studies at Harvard University, found.  Achor is a leading researcher on the subject of happiness, and is a bestselling author, international speaker, and global organizational consultant on the relationship between happiness and success.  While working as a freshman proctor and teaching assistant for Tal Ben-Shahar’s popular “Happiness” course at Harvard University, Achor noticed many students were significantly depressed.  Inquiring as to the cause of their depression, he found that Harvard students – challenged by the onerous academic demands of an Ivy League education – basically fell into one of two groups.  One group ‘put-their-nose-to-the-grindstone’ and studied without ceasing.  The other group studied a lot but took time out to spend with friends and family.  It would make sense that those who studied more achieved higher academic success.  But that wasn’t the case.  After interviewing 1200 Harvard students, Achor found that students who pursued more pro-social connections – spending time with friends and family — were more successful than the ones who focused exclusively on academics.

That wasn’t a fluke.  Many other researchers have found the same thing.  Happiness fueled success, not the other way around.  A 2005 article published in Psychological Bulletin, which analyzed more than 200 studies involving over 275,000 participants, found that happy people found success in nearly every area of life—marriage, health, friendship, community, creativity and work.  But, in all of those studies, happiness came before success.

An older study published in the 1997 Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Making found that doctors who were given lolli-pops before seeing patients were 19% more likely to reach the correct diagnosis. They were also three times more likely to solve a problem creatively than those in a neutral or negative mood prior to seeing patients.   And the doctors weren’t even allowed to eat the lolli-pop, so the sugar from the lolli-pop did not affect their diagnostic abilities or creativity.  The lolli-pops simply made them happier, and that improved their performance and results.

Another study found that optimistic/happy salespeople sold 56% more than their colleagues who were either neutral or unhappy.  Happy people just seem to do better in their jobs and relationships.  Happiness seems to play a role in achieving success.

How Happiness Fuels Success

Of course, happiness alone does not produce success.  It is just one element.  Researchers found that success is the result of a combination of elements that are closely connected to happiness:  competence, motivation, performance, and positive mindset / strategies.  When people use their talents and strengths, are motivated to do so and have the courage to seize those opportunities, this generates positive experiences and a sense of purpose in life.  They are happier, and that sense of well-being leads to success.  So, in essence, happiness is the rocket fuel needed for success.

Given that, anyone who wants to be successful — which is probably most everyone — should be focused on being happier rather than successful.   But can we actually make ourselves happier?  The good news is that it is possible to improve one’s own happiness.  Researchers have found that about 50% of happiness is genetic and the other half is a result of how a person cultivates their own mindset and behavior.  There are things each person can do to influence their individual level or degree of happiness.  That, combined with other elements, then drives success.

How to Be Happier

Here are a few strategies that researchers have confirmed seem to increase happiness.

1. Nurture Pro-Social Connections

Human beings are social creatures. They thrive in supportive environments and need other human beings to reaffirm their existence.  People with more supportive families and friends are generally happier.  The quantity and quality of a person’s social connections—friendships, relationships with family members, closeness to neighbors, bonds with colleagues, etc.—is closely related to personal happiness.  People with one or more close friendships tend to be happier, while people with few social ties are two to three times more likely to suffer from depression.

This is not just conjecture.  Several studies have proven that being in supportive relationships contributes to happiness.  One Harvard study of 1400 students showed that there was a 0.7 correlation between social support and happiness. That is higher than the connection between smoking and cancer.  Being with others is the very thing that helps a person be more resilient and happier.

However, how many quality close connections people have has been on the decline for over three decades.  In 1985, a U.S. survey suggested that people had an average of three very close friends. By 2006, that number had dropped to two, and 25% of the study group couldn’t name one close friend that they could rely on without a doubt.  So developing and nurturing relationships can increase happiness which in turn fuels success.

2.  Exercise More

Countless studies have confirmed that exercise is as effective at treating depression as medication and therapy.  When people skip exercising, they are deliberately eliminating something proven to boost mood and insulate from stress.  And then there are the obvious positive effects on physical health… blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, heart rate.  One way to ensure that this is a priority is to add it to the calendar at least three times per week.

3.  Plan Positive Events

Studies show that when people have things to look forward to, that positive anticipation helps ease the pressures of work and life, thereby creating more opportunities to feel happy.  Whether it’s something simple like dinner with friends, or more momentous like attending a family function like a reunion or celebration, or major event like a big vacation to Israel, it is important to put positive events on the calendar.

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 2007 found that people are happier during the planning stages of a vacation than they were after taking one.  They delighted in looking forward to trips more than reminiscing about them.  Not only did actively anticipating a vacation deliver doses of happiness before the trip, it softened disappointments of dashed expectations upon return.  The more anticipation they had, the better the overall perception of the trip after.

And, a similar study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life in 2010 looked at the connection between anticipation and happiness.  They also found that just planning or anticipating a vacation can make a person happier than actually taking a vacation.  Researchers from the Netherlands who conducted that study interviewed 1,530 people, including 974 vacationers.  They found that the vacationers felt most happy before their trips.  Having something to look forward to increased feelings of happiness.

4.  Keep a Gratitude Journal

Gratitude journals are known to increase a person’s sense of well-being, peace and happiness.  Writing just two positive experiences or reasons to be grateful per night for a month is enough to have an impact on happiness.  It has been found to increase optimism, gratefulness, and contentment.  It helps literally rewire a person’s brain to spot the good things and handle adversity better.

This is not “new-age nonsense”.  Yale studies indicate that a gratitude journal results in higher alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy.  Stanford University offers a highly-popular class on leveraging gratitude journals. The class reduced student stress nearly 30%.  Harvard University studies found that gratitude journals helped improve health and strengthened relationships.  UC-Berkeley researchers found that those who kept gratitude journals slept better and were ill less. And Columbia researchers found that those keeping a gratitude journal improved their immune system, while reducing anxiety and/or depression.   Being healthier, less stressed, less depressed, less anxious and closer to friends and family all helps contribute to an overall increased sense of happiness.

5.  Meditate

Studies from a decade ago found that meditation can make people happier, less stressed and even nicer to others. Neurologists believe that people have a happiness set point, or a fixed average amount, of happiness that we naturally have within, based on genetics.  Each person’s set point is different.  That’s the “genetic part” of happiness.  But now it’s also believe that, thanks to neuroplasticity, that set point can be altered. Through meditation, an individual can rewire their own brain to reset that happiness set point. That happens by thickening the major areas of the brain responsible for coping with uncomfortable situations while shrinking the amygdala, which the part of the brain activated during stress.   Just 15-20 minutes of meditation per day, three days a week, is enough to be able to begin to rewire the brain and alter the happiness set point.

These tips work even for people who suffer from clinical depression.  These strategies, when applied consistently, can help increase individual happiness, which in turn should help fuel career success.  It’s worth a try.  What’s the worst that can happen?  It’s like chicken soup.  It can’t hurt and will probably help.  So maybe what came first was the chicken soup?

Quote of the Week

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”
Helen Keller

© 2021, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.