[2022-10-23] Becoming more positive
Today, in doing research for a speech I will deliver next week, I came across a blog post I had written in 2015 about an informative and entertaining TED Talk on positive psychology.
In The happy secret to better work, researcher and writer Shawn Achor shares what he has learned through his research on happiness. He says that despite our assumptions to the contrary, only 10% of our happiness is dependent on our external world. In fact, 90% of our long-term happiness is predicted by the way our brains process the world. For example, our success at work is three times as likely to be predicted by our level of optimism, our social support and our ability to see stress as a challenge than by our IQ.
Achor argues that we have the formula for happiness backwards. Most of us believe: "If I work harder, I'll be more successful. And if I'm more successful, then I'll be happier." But this formula doesn't work, he insists. As soon as we achieve success, we move the goalposts, defining a new measure of success.
Instead of waiting for success to be happy, we should focus on happiness, which facilitates success. "If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present," says Achor, "then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage." When we're feeling positive, we perform significantly better than when we're feeling neutral, negative or stressed, Achor found. We're more intelligent, creative and energetic. We're faster, more productive and more accurate.
Achor suggests five activities which—when performed each day for 21 days—can help us rewire our brains to make us more positive:
- Three gratitudes - Writing down three new things for which we're grateful will encourage us to start scanning the world for the positive rather than the negative.
- Journaling - Writing down a positive experience we've had in the past 24 hours will allow us to relive it.
- Exercise - Exercise teaches our brain that our behaviour matters.
- Meditation - Meditation allows our brain to focus on the task at hand.
- Acts of kindness - Performing acts of kindness—such as writing a complimentary email or letter to someone—makes us feel more positive.
Perhaps Achor's research explains why I've been largely happy throughout my cancer journey. I've processed my two bouts with the disease as simply something I have to go through, choosing to be grateful for the excellent care of the healthcare professionals who cared for me, advances in science (genetic testing, drug research and development) that gave me a better shot at longevity, and the support of family and friends. I'm convinced that my positive approach to cancer treatment made it easier for me to deal with the downsides of the therapies I've received.
And without consciously following Achor's advice on how to rewire my brain, I did engage in many of the activities he recommended. For more than 800 days, I have recorded my thoughts in daily blog posts. By and large, these thoughts have been positive, reflecting good experiences and things I'm grateful for. And when I didn't start out feeling positive, I often got there in the end, seeing the silver lining in many situations. Walks in nature have always been my favourite form of meditation. And performing acts of kindness has allowed me to be present for others, which provides incredible meaning and pleasure to me.
In addition to my blog posts, I've been capturing daily successes in my Accomplishments log for more than 200 days. I note things I'm proud of, things I've knocked off my to-do list, and things that align with my priorities. It makes me happy to get things done and that happiness makes it easier to get more things done.
