The Happiness Advantage

We spend the larger portion of our day at work — and if well, being unhappy for 8 hours a day, 32 hours a week and 128 hours in an average month sounds familiar, then you may want to consider a change.

Of course, it isn’t always as easy as changing jobs or even careers, particularly in the current climate in which we find ourselves, but there is a case to be made that it is not always external circumstances that determine your state of being.

American author Shawn Achor talks about The Happiness Advantage in which he advocates that as people we are chasing our happiness on the other side of success — which we may never achieve.

The reality is that as people, when we succeed, the joy of that success is short-lived before we change our success goalposts, holding ourselves hostage to even greater results.

According to Achor and other positive psychology work, we may be doing things backwards as happiness fuels success and not the other way around.

Well, what does that all mean for us grinding away 24/7? The theory suggests that by being more positive people, we can use happiness to pursue success.

To create lasting positive change of course does not happen overnight, but again the research speaks for itself — showing that certain behaviours repeated over a period of at least three weeks will help you kick-start this process and rewire your brain.

So what can you do to start creating more happiness in your life?

• Practice gratitude: Thinking of what you’re grateful for throughout the day is believed to increase the level of dopamine in your brain, according to UCLA neuroscientist Alex Korb, author of The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time. It’s been proven that gratitude improves your mental health.
• Get more sleep: There is a ton of research that shows the link between and sleep and improved well-being. Read more about all the ways sleep affects your happiness
• Appreciate your accomplishments: It’s a whole lot easier for our brains to focus on the perceived failures in our lives. We can change that cycle by choosing to focus on our successes.

If you look at happy and positive people with envy, wondering how they do it, know that it’s not a lottery where happiness randomly chooses certain people on which to bestow its magic.

It’s hard work, but it’s possible and if you really want it — go get it!

About the Author

Stacy Perlstein is the founder and MD of HR Studio — she is also the heart, soul and life-blood of the company which she founded in 2015 after identifying a need for quality HR services for small- to medium-sized businesses. With a Bachelor of Commerce in Industrial Psychology from the University of Johannesburg and Honours in Organizational Psychology from University of Cape Town, Stacy is an experienced HR professional who is committed to the success and wellbeing of her clients and development of her own team. From getting businesses back to work amid the stress of the current Covid-19 pandemic to ensuring the best day to day HR Strategies are in place — Stacy ensures the human aspect of your company is taken care of so you can run your business.

As for the words she lives by; “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”―Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

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