The Happiness Advantage

“How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and

Life”
By Shawn Anchor
 Intro
• Secara garis besar buku ini membahas bagaimana kebahagiaan
sebenarnya didapatkan atau dirasakan selama proses mencapai
kesuksesan. Bukan ketika kita sukses baru kita bahagia.
• Ada 7 pendekatan/prinsip berdasarkan psikologi positif yang
dijelaskan dalam buku ini untuk bisa lebih memahami kebahagiaan
Principle 1 – The Happiness Advantage
“Success orbits around happiness, not the other way around.

Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential. Happiness is not just the
mood it’s a work ethic.”

Kesuksesan berfokus/berpusat pada kebahagiaan, bukan sebaliknya. Kebahagiaan

adalah kegembiraan yang kita rasakan saat berusaha mencapai potensi kita.
Action Things for Happiness Advantage
• Meditate – pray, breathe, be present, and take time to disconnect from focused state
• Find something to look forward to – anticipating future rewards can light up pleasure
centers. For example, meeting up with your friends on the weekend.
• Commit conscious acts of kindness – greet strangers, make an effort to help others (it helps
you too)
• Infuse positivity into your surroundings – ensure that people you surround yourself with
and the content you consume reinforces positivity
• Exercise (with the belief that it is good for you) – helps with a sharp mental state and
reduce negative emotions
• Spend money not on stuff but experiences – stop spending money on only monetary things
but spend it on experiences like family trips, adventure with your friends etc.
• Use your signature strength – try to better understand your signature strenght and find
ways to use it more in your work
Principle 2 – The fulcrum and the lever
Changing your performance by changing your Mindset

Every second of our experience is being interpreted by our brain. For

example, when cleaning the house to socializing with your friends.
Therefore, one must optimize the “mindset” to maximize the activity’s
impact.

“Happiness is not about lying to ourselves, or turning a blind eye to the

negative, but about adjusting our brain so that we see the ways to rise above
our circumstances.”
Principle 2 – The fulcrum and the lever
Changing your performance by changing your Mindset

•“When we believe there will be a positive payoff for our effort, we work
harder instead of succumbing to helplessness.”

“if you can’t make actual changes to your daily work, ask yourself what
potential meaning and pleasure already exist in what you do.”
Action Things for The Fulcrum and Lever
• Understand and Give Meaning to (almost) all Events – when doing the
dishes, helping your parents, or doing something you perceive as
“unpleasant” try to focus on the positive.
Principle 3 – The Tetris Effect
Training your brain to capitalize on possibility.

Negative Tetris effect is focusing on problems and finding things to fix it.

Positive Tetris effect is to train your brain to scan the world for the
opportunities and ideas that allow our success rate to grow (just like the
Tetris game).
Action Things for The Tetris Effect
• Practise being Grateful (Gratitude) – Remember, appreciate, and make
a list list of good things in your life – job, career, health and other
areas of life.
Principle 4 – Falling Up
Capitalizing on the downs to build Upward Momentum

There are three paths of any situation – the same, the negative, the path up. Make a
successful decision by clearly and creatively thinking about the situation.

In the midst of defeat, stress, and crisis, our brains map different paths to help us cope.
Falling Up is about finding the mental path that not only leads us up out of failure or
suffering but teaches us to be happier and more successful because of it.

“Study after study shows that if we are able to conceive of a failure as an opportunity for
growth, we are all the more likely to experience that growth.”
Action Things for Falling Up
• Capitalize on setbacks and adversity – view it as an opportunity to
grow, learn, and better make decisions in the future.
• Ensure Calm and Present Mental State – so that you view setbacks or
adversity with a “falling up” (positive) state-of-mind.
Principle 5 – The Zorro Circle
Limit your focus on small, manageable, goals to expand your sphere of power

No matter what you may hear from motivational posters, coaches, and the like, reaching
for the stars is a recipe for failure. Instead, start with self-awareness, then focus on things
in your control and avoid things not in your control.
Action Things for Zorro Circle
• Break Large Goals into Manageable Small Goals – “Don’t write a book,
write a page”

• “Psychologists have found that these kinds of gains in productivity,

happiness, and health have less to do with how much control we
actually have and more with how much control we think we have.”
Principle #6 The 20-Second Rule
Turn bad happiness to good ones by minimizing barriers to change

Common sense is not common action so how can one maximize the chances of following
through with a good habit?

The 20-second rule is a guideline that helps people stay committed to their goals. This
rule states that if you want to accomplish a goal, you need to remove any roadblocks that
inhibit your ability to do so. Ideally, you position yourself in a way that only requires 20
seconds to take the next step toward achieving your goal.
Action Things for the 20-second rule
• Identify and set habit loops – avoid junk food by not buying them or
keeping them far away. Furthermore, make harder things easier to do.
For example, having your gym bag and shoes ready so you can
exercise within “20-seconds!”

• Continuously Reduce Resistance for Good Happiness (and increase

resistance for Bad Happiness) – Good happiness is eating a healthy
snack or reading a book that stimulates you. Bad happiness is
watching TV, adult content online, or remaining sedentary.
Principle 7 – Social Investment
• Social support is your single greatest asset

• The more social support you have, the happier you are.

• “Organizational psychologists have found that even brief encounters can

form “high-quality connections,” which fuel openness, energy, and
authenticity among coworkers, and in turn lead to a whole host of
measurable, tangible gains in performance.”
Action Things for Social Investment
• Invest in Your Social Circle – Author identifies this as the “greatest
investment” for your happiness advantage (principle 1 above). Thus,
make an effort to maintain good relationships with friends, family, and
coworkers.
Summary
• How to look on positive ways (husnudzon)
• Success is just not about the result, but its also about the process
• Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential