Happiness Predicts Success
Happy new year… with a caveat. It’s an assignment, not a wish.
Forming a commitment and plan to cultivate happiness is among the most important early lessons of the hidden curriculum (and life). Most college students believe they are already doing all the things necessary to achieve long-term happiness - putting everything they have into constructing the stellar transcript and expansive resume required to land a high reward career that leads (at least in part) to the happily ever after. However, new research suggests that 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ, but 75% are predicted by optimism levels, social support, and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat. Read on for lesson 1 in the hidden curriculum and learn how happiness is a better predictor of success than success is of happiness.
Last semester I taught a new course called Living Biology at Brown and Beyond. LivBio is a unique course for first year biology-interested students. The course introduces students to the people, places, projects and opportunities that comprise the Program in Biology at Brown. We strive to make students feel part of our community and help them kick-start their journey toward discovering their unique interests in STEM. Through engaging class meetings and out-of-class activities, LivBio provides students with an array of personal, professional, and academic skills that will help them succeed in Biology at Brown and beyond. LivBio is equal parts life skills and STEM skills - students do a good deal of soul and science searching. While developing LivBio, I did a good deal of reading on predictors of success – in college and beyond. I found some of the most intriguing, accessible, and inspiring research on this topic to come from a field you may not have heard of called Positive Psychology.
Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania describes the field as “founded on the belief that people want to lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play”. One of the leading researchers in the field is Shawn Achor - a happiness researcher and educator. Shawn has taken a long hard look at happiness, which he defines as “the joy you feel while striving towards your potential”. He spent years at Harvard as a student, Proctor, educator, and researcher. In a study of over 1600 Harvard students Achor and colleagues set out to determine the factors that cause some students to “rise to the top and thrive in challenging situations while others sink down and never become what they have in them to be.” Shawn’s creative work and important findings, applicable to campuses, businesses, and more can be found in a number of places. Here are 3:
The Happiness Advantage - The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work. I loved this book for the science behind it, the witty writing, and great tips. I think this is a must-read for college students. I did not assign the full book to the LivBio class last this past fall, but I am considering it for next year.
TED talk - If your skeptical, or don’t want to add more reading to your busy life, watch Shawn’s TED talk. Its super funny, captivating, and one of the most popular of all time.
Positive Intelligence - Shawn’s 2012 Harvard Business Review article ‘Positive Intelligence’ introduces his work and offers some clear (and very do-able) tips for cultivating a positive mind-set.
Here are some key points from Shawn Achor’s work and Positive Psychology that resonated with my students and me.
· In a meta-analysis of >200 studies on 275,000 people worldwide, Positive Psychology researchers found that happiness leads to success in nearly every domain including work, health, friendship, sociability, creativity, and energy.
· Happiness results from positive habits we form (see some below), how we respond to and handle stress, the amount of social support we receive and even more so the amount we provide to others.
· Positive emotions flood our brains with dopamine and serotonin, chemicals that not only make us feel good but dial up the learning centers of our brains to higher levels. They help us organize new information, keep that information in the brain longer, and retrieve it faster later on. And, they enable us to make and sustain more neural connections, which allows us to think more quickly and creatively, become more skilled at complex analysis and problem solving, and see and invent new ways of doing things.
· Happiness is not pre-determined. Recent research on neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to change even in adulthood—reveals that as you develop new habits, you rewire the brain. Engaging in one brief positive exercise every day for as little as three weeks can have a lasting impact. These can be as simple as writing down things you are grateful for each day.
Embracing and practicing positivity has made my life richer, and I’ve seen it do the same for my students. One of the favorite exercises of the LivBio class was handwriting and sending thank you notes to the people who supported them in life. Another was spending a few minutes each class journaling about a personal goal or accomplishment. If you are ready to embrace happiness to foster success check out the work I’ve mentioned above. It is easy enough to start with some simple daily practices to get your dopamine and serotonin up, make more neural connections, and find success in all you do! Here are a few suggestions from Shawn Achor and colleagues to get you started. These worked for my first years and they can work for you too.
Jot down three things you are grateful for each morning.
Write a positive note to someone.
Meditate for 2 minutes.
Exercise (you should be doing this anyway).
2 minutes of journaling daily on the feel good and meaningful experiences in life.
Come up with your own happiness ritual.
Happy Happying!
