3 min readNew DelhiSep 16, 2021 08:15 AM IST
First published on: Sep 16, 2021 at 08:15 AM IST
In this expository video, Shawn Achor, CEO of Good Think Inc, humorously and quite candidly reveals how we can increase our levels of happiness by narrating an amusing tale of his little sister falling off a bunk bed. Achor, who was young himself, decided to make his sister feel better by telling her that she was unique as she had landed on her fours, hence making her a unicorn.
Achor, a positive psychologist by profession, is well acquainted with the idea of happiness at work, having delivered lectures at the White House, NBA, and NFL. According to him, only 25 per cent of job performance is based on intelligence, the remaining 75 per cent depends on social groups, our levels of positivity, and our ability to view stress as a challenge instead of an obstacle.
With a remarkable and unique point of view, he studies positivity instead of negativity. For instance, studying the reasons and motives behind the happiness of happy people rather than how to cheer up those who are depressed. “The absence of disease is not health: you can’t talk about wellness by only focusing on alcoholism, risky sex, bullying,” he offers.
Most of us are of the belief that we have to be successful in order to be happy, but Achor explains is a flawed idea. He recounts countless examples of how we can reverse the formula to benefit ourselves. He explains that once we achieve our goal of success, we immediately shift our expectations further. If we get good grades, we aim to get even better grades the next time, and hence this idea of happiness is based on success that is dynamic. Happiness, on the other hand, is much more likely to make us successful.
He gives us examples of activities that we can practise in order to achieve that goal, promising that we can rewire our brains to view things more positively by maintaining a journal of the things we are grateful for, random acts of kindness, and meditation to filter our minds.
He concludes his talk with a thought-provoking sentence: “If happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there.”
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Shawn Achor on changing the formula of happiness. 
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