We spend the larger portion of our day at work – and if well, being unhappy for 8 hours a day, 32 hours a week and 128 hours in an average month sounds familiar, then you may want to consider a change. Of course it isn’t always as easy as changing jobs or even careers, particularly in the current climate in which we find ourselves but there is a case to be made that it is not always external circumstances that determine your state of being
American author Shawn Achor talks about The Happiness Advantage in which he advocates that as people we are chasing our happiness on the other side of success – which we may never achieve. The reality is that as people, when we succeed, the joy of that success is short-lived before we change our success goalposts, holding ourselves hostage to even greater results. According to Achor and other positive psychology work, we may be doing things backwards as happiness fuels success and not the other way around.
Well what does that all mean for us grinding away 24/7. The theory suggests that by being more positive people you can use happiness to pursue success. To create lasting positive change of course does not happen overnight but again the research speaks for itself showing that certain behaviours repeated over a period of at least three weeks will help you kick-start this process and rewire your brain
So what can you do to start creating more happiness in your life?
- Practice gratitude: Thinking of what you’re grateful for throughout the day is believed to increase the level of dopamine in your brain, according to UCLA neuroscientist Alex Korb, author of “The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time.”
- Get more sleep: There is a ton of research that shows the link between and sleep and improved well-being. Read more about all the ways sleep affects your happiness
- Appreciate your accomplishments: It’s a whole lot easier for our brains to focus on the perceived failures in our lives. But we can change that cycle by choosing to focus on our successes.