90% Happier

I had the opportunity to revisit Shawn Achor’s work on positive psychology at the AASA conference late last week in New Orleans. It is no secret that I’m a fan of Shawn’s work. I even include many of his quotes and research in my book, Legacy of Learning: teaching for lasting impact.

In this session, I was reminded of a shocking statistic. 10% of our happiness comes from our external world. The other 90% we create for ourselves (Lyubomirksy 2005).

Think about that. Think about how powerful we can be in our own lives. We can be a force for good. We can lead ourselves. We can champion ourselves.

Achor defines happiness as any positive emotion. I define happiness as growth. And I think that any work we do on ourselves to grow positive emotions is evidence that we are growing.

During this session, I was reminded of the following 5 strategies from Shawn Achor’ book, The Happiness Advantage:

1. Three Gratitudes: Write down three different gratitudes every day. This will lose its effect if you write the same ones every day.
2. The Doubler: Journal about a positive experience (and you will experience it again.)
3. The Fun Fifteen: Spend 15 minutes in a cardio activity that you find enjoyable, and it can elevate your mood almost instantly.
4. Clear Your Mind: Whether through meditation or other strategies for a mental break, giving yourself a pause can do wonders for your sense of wellbeing.
5. Conscious Acts of Kindness: Do something nice for others every day for 21 days. It not only makes them feel good, watch how it makes you feel too. And bonus, it takes 21 days to build a new habit. So, this can become part of your daily routine as well.

This time of year is tough. Maybe be a bit more gentle with yourself and others. And don’t forget that in many cases, we can define our own reality.

And I want my reality to feel both positive and growth evoking.