Wellbeing

Successfully happy

Happiness leads to success, not the other way around

In a this fascinating TEDx talk, Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, shares the experimentally confirmed results that happiness brings us success. This is particularly valuable for entrepreneurs:

“every time you have a success, your brain changes what success means… if happiness is on the opposite side of success, you’ll never get there. But if you increase your levels of happiness in the midst of a challenge—in the midst of searching for investment, in the midst of a down economy—what we find is that all of your success rates rise dramatically – every business outcome improves.”
Shawn Achor

Our brains work significantly better when we’re feeling positive, a sunny outlook helps us be smarter and more creative. “We found that optimism is the greatest predictor of entrepreneurial success because it allows your brain to perceive more possibilities,” said Achor. As we learn with ADHD, genetics sets much of our level of optimism or ability to handle stress, but Achor explains:

Genes are really important to happiness, but that’s based upon the cult of the average. What that means is that the average person doesn’t fight their genes. So if you’re born with genes for obesity or for pessimism, and you don’t change your behavior than your genes win. Happiness comes easier to some people, but happiness is a possibility for all if we change our behavior or our mindset.
Shawn Achor

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis is an ADHD Coach, writer and founder of SimplyWellbeing. He has over 10,000 hours and 15 years of experience in coaching hundreds of ADHD executives, business professionals and creatives, and previously running a large ADHD support group and an ADHD diagnostic clinic. His business expertise comes from a twenty years career in software, from programming, through marketing, sales and running a few start-ups. His ADHD insight is personal, with decades understanding his own ADHD experience and in bringing up his ADHD daughter. He has published his writing primarily via this website, with interactive ADHD courses in development.