It sometimes seems as if we humans see the key to happiness as success. Whether you define success as a great career, a big salary, academic achievement or 2.4 kids, this is what you must achieve to make you happy.
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But maybe we’ve been looking at this the wrong way round? What if happiness is actually the cause of success, rather than the result?
Research shows that happy people are more likely to achieve success, and a happy state of mind can benefit your life in all sorts of ways.
I recently wrote about how to become truly happy person. As a solution focused hypnotherapist, helping people move from a negative to a positive frame of mind is a major part of my role. I was really interested to read how happy people perform better at work. So, if you define happiness as career success, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation!
Emma Seppala is the Science Director of the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. She believes that happiness creates skills and behaviours that increase our chances of career success.
Emma says that happiness has a “profound positive effect on our professional and personal lives”, as it improves our interpersonal intelligence, productivity and influence over others. She advocates cultivating the following behaviours to make you a happier person. You need to:
- Live in the moment
- Bounce back from failure
- Manage your energy
- Make time for enjoyment
- Be kind to yourself
- Go outside your comfort zone
- Show compassion to others
These behaviours, while increasing your own happiness, also open you up to greater success in life. It’s easy to imagine how a positive outlook can rub off at work: a key study into productivity showed that positive salespeople sold on average 37% more than their less-positive colleagues.
It’s not just at work either. Harvard University has been carrying out The Harvard Study of Adult Development since 1938. It looks how early experiences can predict health and wellbeing in later life, and found a link between happy relationships and good health in old age.
A German study showed that happier single people are more likely to marry – so, a long-term relationship comes from happiness, rather than leading to it (although we’d like to think this one works both ways!).
How do you define success yourself? What are the goals you need to reach to feel you’ve succeeded? These could range from losing weight and becoming fitter to stellar career advancement. When I work with my clients towards goal-fulfilment, we always look at reprogramming thoughts to become more positive. Nobody can reach their goal without a positive outlook. Or, as we could put it, success through happiness.
I’m Debbie Daltrey, the founder of Great Minds Clinic and an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist. I am a solution focused hypnotherapist and a BACP Registered Counsellor. I’m a senior lecturer in hypnotherapy and I supervise other hypnotherapists. I run online hypnotherapy sessions for clients locally, UK, and across the World for English-speaking people. Why not book your free initial consultation? If you have a goal you want to reach, get in touch for a confidential chat, and we’ll achieve that positivity you need to move forwards.
https://www.greatmindsclinic.co.uk/
