Research indicates that happiness is a stronger predictor of
business success than job satisfaction. Happy people consistently outperform
their dour coworkers and attain better, more fulfilling positions. If you’re a
cricket player, being happy even increases your batting average!
But if happiness is so critical to business productivity and
success, it raises the question: How do you measure happiness? What makes a
happy employee? What makes anyone happy at all? How can businesses facilitate a
positive environment at work without resorting to lunch hour sing-a-longs?
Psychologists have begun exploring these research questions,
and developing a new domain of inquiry in the process—positive psychology.
Rather than focusing on disorders and mental illnesses, positive psychology
investigates what makes life meaningful and joyful, and identifies ways to
foster those traits in ourselves and others. Prominent researchers in the field
include Dr. Martin Seligman at
the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
at Claremont Graduate University.
Here are a few “best practices” from positive psychology
that you can incorporate into your own personal life and professional career:
Friends
Humans are social creatures, and our social relationships
have a
profound impact on our own sense of happiness. Indeed, both positive and
negative emotions can behave like mood viruses, quickly spreading through a
network of acquaintances and influencing the emotional state of people three
degrees removed. Rather than cutting people off to prevent a case of the
Mondays from going viral, it’s better to enhance the bonds between you and your
coworkers.
Tending to these social connections is one of the keys to
leading a meaningful, productive, happy life. Given the amount of time that we
spend working, colleagues inevitably become an important social group within
our personal network. Rather than viewing coworkers as simply that, try to view
colleagues as an important part of your social existence.
The lesson: Be proactive in strengthening group
cohesion and general well-being. This effort can be as simple as taking
ownership of a small project or part of a larger problem. In doing so, you
provide a concrete improvement to the group in a way that’s tangible and
visible, both to yourself and others.
Flow
Positive psychologists throw around the word “happiness” a
lot. But the word “flow” is used nearly as frequently. Flow describes a state
of mind that we’re all familiar with—work happens effortlessly and for its own
sake, tasks ebb and flow without conscious management, and time passes without
being noticed. Flow describes our mindset when we say we’re “in the zone” or
that “time is flying by.” This sense of flow is an important component of
happiness.
One of the keys to identifying your personal flow zone is
finding the right balance between challenging tasks and work ability. Trying to
take on a task that is too challenging leads to frustration and a sense of
helplessness, while not having a large enough task results in boredom.
The lesson: Break projects up into individual
“chunks” with clear goals and expectations. By minimizing distractions and
confusion, you should be able to move seamlessly and confidently between tasks
while staying actively engaged. If the project is appropriately challenging,
the flow will come naturally as you immerse yourself in the work.
Finance
Positive psychology has confirmed the old adage that you
can’t buy happiness. Several studies have demonstrated that once your basic
needs are met and you have enough income to live comfortably, earning more
money won’t increase your happiness. Yet the same studies indicate that people
radically overestimate the impact that having more money will make on their
long-term sense of happiness. Money is then pursued for its own sake, with
diminishing happiness returns.
Positive psychology, however, has provided ample evidence
that those who are happy earn higher incomes in the long run than those who are
unhappy. For example, one study measured the happiness of first-year college
students. When these students were re-interviewed in their 30s, those who were
rated as happier when entering college had higher incomes than the unhappiest
students, even after controlling for other factors such as parental income.
The lesson: Happiness begets money, not the other way
around. If you want to be wealthy and happy, start with happiness — pursue
projects that you enjoy, that allow you to connect with others while doing
meaningful work, and that help you enter into the mental space of flow.
Everything else follows from there.
The secret to working happier isn’t just following a series
of steps, it’s making a conscious decision to adopt a positive approach to work
and life. The best practices outlined above can point you in the right
direction, but positive psychology is ultimately about restoring your own
personal agency and developing self-efficacy. In the process, you may find a more
positive balance between work, family, health, and community.
For more information on positive psychology, check out the Quality
of Life Research Center and Authentic Happiness.
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