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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Shawn Achor
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July 18 - August 16, 2016
If, however, we first concentrate our efforts on small manageable goals, we regain the feeling of control so crucial to performance.
Feeling that we are in control, that we are masters of our own fate at work and at home, is one of the strongest drivers of both well-being and performance.
Among students, greater feelings of control lead not only to higher levels of happiness, but also to higher grades and more motivation to pursue the careers they really want.
Similarly, employees who feel they have high levels of control at the office are better at their jobs and...
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greater feelings of control at work predicted greater satisfaction in nearly every aspect of life: family, job, relationships, and so on.2 People who felt in control at work also had lower levels of stress, work-family conflict, and job turnover.
the most successful people, in work and in life, are those who have what psychologists call an “internal locus of control,” the belief that their actions have a direct effect on their outcomes.
Research has shown that people who believe that the power lies within their circle have higher academic achievement, greater career achievement, and are much happier at work.3 An internal locus lowers job stress and turnover, and leads to higher motivation, organizational commitment, and task performance.
Our reality-TV culture, which tells us that change isn’t worth making (or televising) unless it’s immediate and Olympian in size, doesn’t help either. We are taught to believe that total makeovers of house, body, and psyche are possible all in a 30-minute episode (minus commercials). But in the real world, this all-or-nothing mindset nearly guarantees failure.
When the challenges we face are particularly challenging and the payoff remains far away, setting smaller, more manageable goals helps us build our confidence and celebrate our forward progress, and keeps us committed to the task at hand.
Peter Bregman advises, “Don’t write a book, write a page.…
The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle discusses how the strategy of “finding and improving small problems” has helped businesses flourish.16 The practice (often referred to as kaizen, which is Japanese for “continuous improvement”) involves a focus on tiny, incremental changes—improving
establishing small circles of success and gradually expanding outward, Joey mastered the larger circle of his life.
the things of our lives have gained control over the functionality of our lives, and productivity suffers as a result.
Broken Windows Theory. First devised in 1982 by sociologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, the theory explains how small acts of vandalism can quickly balloon into widespread crime.
Small successes can add up to major achievements. All it takes is drawing that first circle in the sand.
while some of the ideas espoused by positive psychology may very well be common sense, it’s the science behind them that makes them unique
and valuable.
one of the greatest paradoxes of human behavior: Common sense is not common action.
positive habits are hard to keep, no matter how commonsensical they might be.
Even when we feel committed to positive change, sustaining it for any real length of time can seem nearly impossible.
today’s treadmill becomes tomorrow’s clothing rack.
It is precisely because habits are so automatic that we rarely stop and think about the enormous role they play in shaping our behavior, and in fact our lives.
The reason willpower is so ineffective at sustaining change is that the more we use it, the more worn-out it gets.
no matter how unrelated the tasks were, they all seemed to be tapping the same fuel source. As the researchers wrote, “many widely different forms of self-control draw on a common resource, or self-control strength, which is quite limited and hence can be depleted readily.”10 Put another way, our willpower weakens the more we use it.
This invisible pull toward the path of least resistance can dictate more of our lives than we realize, creating an impassible barrier to change and positive growth.
Unfortunately, though these types of “passive leisure,” like watching TV and trolling around on Facebook, might be easier and more convenient than biking or looking at art or playing soccer, they don’t offer the same rewards. Studies show that these activities are enjoyable and engaging for only about 30 minutes, then they start sapping our energy, creating what psychologists call “psychic entropy”—that listless, apathetic feeling
“active leisure” like hobbies, games, and sports enhance our concentration, engagement, motivation, and sense of enjoyment.
Csikszentmihalyi calls this “activation energy.” In
physics, activation energy is the initial spark needed to catalyze a reaction. The same energy, both physical and mental, is needed of people to overcome inertia and kick-start a positive habit.
Research shows that the average employee gets interrupted from their work every 11 minutes, and on each occasion experiences a loss of concentration and flow that takes almost as many minutes to recover from.
It’s not the sheer number and
volume of distractions that gets us into trouble; it’s the ease of access to them.
distraction, always just one click away, has become the path of least resistance.
put the desired behavior on the path of least resistance, so it actually took less energy and effort
Lower the activation energy for habits you want to adopt, and raise it for habits you want to avoid. The more we can lower or even eliminate the activation energy for our desired actions, the more we enhance our ability to jump-start positive change.
keep his e-mail program closed while he worked, so it would no longer send jarring alerts whenever he received new mail.
disabled the automatic login and password for the account, took the shortcut off the computer desktop, then hid the application icon in an empty folder, buried in another empty folder, buried in another empty folder. Essentially, we created the electronic version of Russian stacking dolls. As he told me one day at the office, only half jokingly, it was now “a total pain in the ass” to check e-mail.
studies showed that with every additional choice people are asked to make, their physical stamina, ability to perform numerical calculations, persistence in the face of failure, and overall focus drop dramatically.
Barry Schwartz explains how setting rules in advance can free us from the constant barrage of willpower-depleting choices that make a real difference in our lives.
At work, setting rules to reduce the volume of choice can be incredibly effective.
Principle 7–that when we encounter an unexpected challenge or threat, the only way to save ourselves is to hold on tight to the people around us and not let go.
understand how easy it is to retreat into our own shells at the moment we need to be reaching out to others the most.
Instead of turning inward, they actually hold tighter to their social support. Instead of divesting, they invest. Not only are these people happier, but they are more productive, engaged, energetic, and resilient. They know that their social relationships are the single greatest investment they can make in the Happiness Advantage.
there are “70 years of evidence that our relationships with other people matter, and matter more than anything else in the world.”2
they conclude that, “like food and air, we seem to need social relationships to thrive.”3 That’s because when we have a community of people we can count on—spouse, family, friends, colleagues—we multiply our emotional, intellectual, and physical resources.
there was one—and only one—characteristic that distinguished the happiest 10 percent from everybody else: the strength of their social relationships.
social support was a far greater predictor of happiness than any other factor, more than GPA, family income, SAT scores, age, gender, or race.
When we enjoy strong social support, on the other hand, we can accomplish impressive feats of resilience, and even extend the length of our lives.
The same strategy—hold onto others—is just as crucial for our survival as we navigate the daily stresses of the working world.
people with strong relationships are less likely to perceive situations as stressful in the first place.15 So in essence, investing in social connections means that you’ll find it easier to interpret adversity as a path to growth and opportunity; and when you do have to experience the stress, you’ll bounce back from it faster and better protected against its long-term negative effects.
