Engineering Happiness
Transcript:
Hi! Welcome to this week’s training. I want to teach you how to engineer happiness.
But first let me give you some Happy Math.
“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present. ”
According to Vanessa Van Edwards’ research at the Science of People, they discovered that happiness is 40% is genetic., 10% is environment, and 50% behavior and mindset. The problem is that most people focus 90% on the environment like moving somewhere else, a new house, or making more money. But the true KEY TO HAPPINESS IS YOUR BEHAVIOR AND MINDSET.
They also discovered that Happiness is a skill that can be developed. They realize that happiness is not the end result but is the CAUSE. I.e. They build happiness into the structure of their life causing happiness. And another surprising insight was that the SMALLEST THINGS CAUSE HAPPINESS.
Here’s a HAPPINESS RECIPE you can implement today and start building happiness into your life!
Happiness Recipe
The first ingredient is capability. This is feeling powerful and expert in your area professionally. Vanessa recommends job crafting, which is creating your day around your skills.
The second ingredient is hope. What’s interesting about hope is that you can generate hope by LEARNING NEW THINGS.
And the final ingredient and the easiest and cheapest is AWE. Being awed by nature on a walk or being awed by great pieces of art, music, or a museum that interests you. Or watching a favorite movie. JUST THINKING ABOUT WATCHING YOUR FAVE MOVIE INCREASES ENDORPHINS 27%. The very, very smallest things create awe.
Let’s look at each one a little more in-depth.
Job Crafting
Sit down and write down the skills you use to complete your job tasks. For example, as a strategist, one of the most important skills I must have is LISTENING to what my client really needs. So listening is a top skill. If I don’t listen well, I don’t help my client well.
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. ”
Next circle the two to three of the ones you’re really good at and love doing. Then look at the remaining ones and ask yourself if you don’t like them as much due to lack of knowledge or the task itself.
If it’s the task, there’s not much you can do except delegate if possible. But if you don’t like some because you don’t feel you’re good at them, get the skills you need. A good resources are those you work with that do them well. be mentored by them. Also, lynda.com has great courses to learn many professional skills and of course udemy.com.
Hope
As stated, learning new things increase hope so create a LEARNING BUCKET LIST of all the books, courses, seminars etc. you want to learn from. Some companies might even pay for it. Take advantage of that.
Progress
Focus on progress! This motivates you more than anything including money, promotions, and bonuses. Pick specific goals and take risks to reach them. Mark why something didn’t work and analyze why. I love the 5 Why exercise for analysis. Basically, you ask why something didn’t work and then ask why on that answer and so on until you come to the 5th why. That answer is your solution. Jeff Bezos is the one that discovered this process.
Start. Stop. Continue.
What do you want to start? What do you want to stop or do less of? And what do you want to continue? Vanessa does this every 1-4 weeks. She also recommends Quests like reading every book on the New York Top Seller’s list, learning a new language, or eating or cooking food from every cuisine because CHALLENGING YOURSELF INCREASES ENDORPHINS.
Remember that stress is scientifically more your perception of something rather than the “something” itself. You are in CONTROL OF YOUR BEHAVIOR AND MINDSET and can determine your perception.