Shawn Achor quotes: regarding the science of positivity and happiness.
“The more you believe in your own ability to succeed, the more likely it is that you will.”
“The person we have the greatest power to change is ourselves.”
“Our daily decisions and habits have a huge impact upon both our levels of happiness and success.”
“Believing that, for the most part, our actions determine our fates in life can only spur us to work harder; and when we see this hard work pay off, our belief in ourselves only grows stronger.”
“Our power to maximize our potential is based on two important things: (1) the length of our lever—how much potential power and possibility we believe we have, and (2) the position of our fulcrum—the mindset with which we generate the power to change.”
“Before potential, there is a motivation. Before motivation, there is an emotion. And before emotion, there is your reality.”
“Beliefs are so powerful because they dictate our efforts and actions.”
“Simply believing we can fly won’t set us aloft. Yet if we don’t believe, we have no chance of ever making it off the ground.”
“When we perceive a reality in which success is likely, that success becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Success is about more than simple resilience. It’s about using that downward momentum to propel ourselves in the opposite direction. It’s about capitalizing on setbacks and adversity to become even happier, even more motivated, and even more successful. It’s not falling down, it’s falling up.”
“The most successful decisions come when we are thinking clearly and creatively enough to recognize all the paths available to us, and accurately predict where that path will lead. The problem is that when we are stressed or in crisis, many people miss the most important path of all: the path up.”
“Without action, knowledge is often meaningless. As Aristotle put it, ‘To be excellent we cannot simply think or feel excellent, we must act excellently.’”
“The greatest competitive advantage in our modern economy is a positive and engaged brain.”
“Research shows that when people work with a positive mindset, performance on nearly every level—productivity, creativity, engagement—improves.”
“Habits are like financial capital—forming one today is an investment that will automatically give out returns for years to come.”
“One of the most powerful forces in human nature is our belief that change is possible.”
“By changing our mindset and habits, we can actually dramatically change the course of life, improve intelligence, productivity, improve the quality of our lives, and improve every single education and business outcome.”
“The key to daily practice is to put your desired actions as close to the path of least resistance as humanly possible. Identify the activation energy—the time, the choices, the mental and physical effort they require—and then reduce it. If you can cut the activation energy for those habits that lead to success, even by as little as 20 seconds at a time, it won’t be long before you start reaping their benefits.”
“If we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average.”
“If all you strive for is diminishing the bad, you’ll only attain the average and you’ll miss out entirely on the opportunity to exceed the average.”
“Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost. It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation and ability to accomplish goals.”
“Each one of us is like that butterfly in the Butterfly Effect. And each tiny move toward a more positive mindset can send ripples of positivity through our organizations, our families and our communities.”
“Focusing on the good isn’t just about overcoming our inner grump to see the glass half-full. It’s about opening our minds to the ideas and opportunities that will help us be more productive, effective, and successful at work and in life.”
“Positivity is such a high predicator of success rates. Even the smallest shots of positivity can give someone a serious competitive edge.”
“When our brains constantly scan for and focus on the positive, we profit from three of the most important tools available to us: happiness, gratitude, and optimism. The role happiness plays should be obvious—the more you pick up on the positive around you, the better you’ll feel—and we’ve already seen the advantages to performance that brings. The second mechanism at work here is gratitude, because the more opportunities for positivity we see, the more grateful we become.”
“Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed.”
“When we are happy—when our mindset and mood are positive—we are smarter, more motivated, and thus more successful. Happiness is the center, and success revolves around it.”
“The contents of the glass don’t matter; what’s more important is to realize there’s a pitcher of water nearby. In other words, we have the capacity to refill the glass, or to change our outlook.”
“Successful people see adversity as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block.”
“We’ve all heard the usual examples: Michael Jordan cut from his high school basketball team, Walt Disney fired by a newspaper editor for not being creative enough, the Beatles turned away by a record executive who told them that ‘guitar groups are on their way out.’ In fact, many of their winning mantras essentially describe the notion of falling up: ‘I’ve failed over and over again in my life,’ Jordan once said, ‘and that is why I succeed.’ Robert F. Kennedy said much the same: ‘Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.’ And Thomas Edison, too, once claimed that he had failed his way to success.”
“Things do not necessarily happen for the best, but some people are able to make the best out of things that happen.”
“Only when we choose to believe that we live in a world where challenges can be overcome, our behavior matters, and change is possible can we summon all our drive, energy, and emotional and intellectual resources to make that change happen.”
“Looking at the world from the vantage point of other cultures can open us up to all kinds of ideas, possibilities and paths to success that we might otherwise have missed.”
“Joy makes us want to invest more deeply in the people around us. It makes us want to learn more about our communities. It makes us want to be able to find ways of being able to make this a better external world for all of us.”
“The best leaders are the ones who show their true colors not during the banner years but during times of struggle.”
“But the most successful people invest in their friends, peers and family members to propel themselves forward.”
“Research shows you get multiple tasks done faster if you do them one at a time. It also decreases stress and raises happiness.”
“You have to train your brain to be positive just like you work out your body.”
“When you write down a list of ‘three good things’ that happened that day, your brain will be forced to scan the last 24 hours for potential positives.”
“Verbalizing the stress and helplessness you are feeling is the first step toward regaining control.”
“Meditate. Take just five minutes each day to watch your breath go in and out.”
“Spend two minutes a day scanning the world for three new things you’re grateful for. And do that for 21 days—the reason why that’s powerful is you’re training your brain to scan the world in a new pattern, you’re scanning for positives, instead of scanning for threats. It’s the fastest way of teaching optimism.”
“To be truly engaged at work, your brain needs periodic breaks to gain fresh perspective and energy.”
“Smart vacations lead to greater happiness and energy at work and, therefore, greater productivity, intelligence, and resilience. A positive, well-managed vacation can make you happier and less stressed, and you can return with more energy at work and with more meaning in your life.”
“Success orbits around happiness, not the other way around.”
“Happiness is the precursor to success, not merely the result. And that happiness and optimism actually fuel performance and achievement—giving us the competitive edge that I call the ‘happiness advantage.'”
“Remember, happiness is not just a mood—it’s a work ethic.”
“Most people keep waiting on happiness, putting off happiness until they’re successful or until they achieve some goal, which means we limit both happiness and success. That formula doesn’t work.”
“Waiting to be happy limits our brain’s potential for success, whereas cultivating positive brains makes us more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive, which drives performance upward.”
“We become more successful when we are happier and more positive.”
“Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it’s the realization that we can.”
“Happiness implies a positive mood in the present and a positive outlook for the future.”
“I defined happiness as ‘the joy we feel moving toward our potential.'”
“Happiness is a mindset for your journey, not the result of your destination.”
Related: The Happiness Advantage summary.
