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Happiness: The Route To Success
Some people believe that success leads to happiness. That may be true in some cases, but have you ever thought that this whole statement can be turned around – that happiness can actually lead to success?
This is the point that is made eloquently in the first chapter of a new book by Professor Richard Wiseman: ‘59 seconds: Think a little, change a lot’ (MacMillan, 2009). He says: “Happiness does not just make you enjoy life more, it actually affects how successful you are in both your personal and professional life.”
Our colleague Juliet has been looking into this subject more closely. She reports: “Obtaining more money it seems, isn’t the answer to great happiness. A study in the 1970s by Philip Brickman from the Northwestern University set out to explore the effects of greater prosperity on a person’s level of happiness. He said: ‘Contrary to popular belief, those who had won the lottery were no more or less happy than those in the control group.’”
So why is the converse true? Why should happiness lead to success? One of the key reasons is that greater happiness often leads to increased job satisfaction and a sense of fulfilment or achievement.
Every day is special
Juliet returns to a short story that she read recently, written by Paul Coelho, author of ‘Like the flowing river’ (Harper Collins, 2006). The story is about Norma, a very special Brazilian lady who lives in Madrid. They call her "The Rocking Grandma". Although she is over 60, she is very active and organises promotions, parties and concerts.
When she was asked about the source of all her energy, she produced an old document covered with scribbles – her ‘magic calendar’. For each day of the year, she had written down something good that had happened on that date. For instance, one day said: ‘Today is the day they discovered a vaccine against polio’. Norma commented: “We must celebrate that, because life is beautiful.” Because she looked at the calendar each day, she always had a reason to be happy.
Gratefulness is great
Professor Wiseman believes that if we are grateful for all of the good things we have, this will translate into a more positive outlook in both life and business. However, this is an attitude that needs to be cultivated and nurtured. He equates it to the invigorating feeling of walking in to a room and noticing the smell of freshly baked bread. After a while, it’s easy to become desensitised to the aroma. However, if you go out of the room and walk back in again, you experience the same wonderful smell again.
So, cultivate a feeling of gratitude and happiness. This will help you in your work and will also help in the development of a more positive and successful Insight team. In the next issue of 5MI, we’ll explore how this ‘attitude of gratitude’ can be encouraged by keeping a diary. Meanwhile, you might like to read a research paper by R A Emmons and M E McCullough: ‘Counting Blessings versus Burdens – an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life’. Just click this link:
http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/gratitude/Emmons_McCullough_2003_JPSP.pdf
