This article by Mark C. Crowley featuring an interview with Shawn Achor was originally published on Fast Company. Engagement is the holy grail of workplace satisfaction. Here are three new ways to think about your employees’ happiness. By the late…
The brilliant Amy Wrzesniewski from Yale University researches how people perceive their jobs. She found that the way a person sees his or her occupation—as a “calling,” as opposed to a “job”—doesn’t depend on the job title or position, but…
The latest scientific research proves that we have the power and ability to be happier–we just need to learn how to tap into it. Live Happy CEO, Kym Yancey hosted a FREE, 5-Day conversation series: “Wake Up Happy!” September 22nd through September…
Work hard, achieve your goals, become happy — that’s the happiness formula many believe to be universally true. But happiness researcher Shawn Achor says that this success-leads-to-happiness model is fundamentally flawed. In a sit-down with Oprah for “Super Soul Sunday,” Achor explains why. “It’s scientifically broken…
“Super Soul Sunday – Oprah & Shawn Achor: The Secret of Happy People” Super Soul Sunday Episode Summaries Part 1: Aired Sunday, May 25 at 11 a.m. ET/PT on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network Oprah sits down with Shawn Achor, a Harvard-trained researcher and the New…
The quest for happiness is one of humanity’s oldest pursuits. Many believe if you work hard to be successful, then you’ll be happy. Shawn Achor, Harvard researcher, speaker, and best-selling author of The Happiness Advantage and Before Happiness, says research…
I thought it was simple: Vacations are fun, Americans are stressed, and happiness raises productivity and sales. Therefore, people should take more vacations, right? But research doesn’t hold that line of thinking up. Not every vacation is equal. According to a 2013…
In today’s world of smartphones and 24-hour news channels, we’ve become addicted to information. I found myself filling all my micro-moments each day with stuff that blocked me from forward progress. Brain “noise” is any information that is irrelevant, useless,…
Who is the most important person on a team? If you follow sports, you know commentators will often talk about the “glue guys” or “glue gals” who hold their teams together in the midst of challenge and are largely responsible…
Until I began researching happiness at Harvard, I thought that if you just worked harder, you’d be more successful, which of course would make you happier. But my research showed that formula doesn’t work. Every time our brain records…
In July 2010 Burt’s Bees, a personal-care products company, was undergoing enormous change as it began a global expansion into 19 new countries. In this kind of high-pressure situation, many leaders pester their deputies with frequent meetings or flood their…
Learning that you or a loved one has a chronic illness is news you never want to hear. The knowledge of such information is often accompanied by feelings of fear, anger, and depression, which can cause debilitating, unnecessary stress. By…
After giving a lecture at a large tech company, I got into a cab bound for the airport along with one of the attendees. As I searched for my seatbelt in the bottomless crevice of the back seat, I noticed…
I had gone to bed at midnight. It was now two in the morning. I was still awake, stressed thinking about my book, which — ironically — is about happiness. Trying to unwind, I opened my laptop and started watching…