25% of job success is predicted by I.Q. 75% is predicted by your optimism levels…

~ Live & Learn
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Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard.  Worthy video.  I’ve pulled some of his points from the video below:

…Why? Why is it that some of you are so high above the curve in terms of your intellectual ability, athletic ability, music ability, creativity, energy levels, your resiliency in the face of challenge, your sense of humor?

…when I turn on the news, it seems like the majority of the information is not positive, in fact it’s negative.  Most of it’s about murder, corruption, diseases, nature disasters.  And very quickly, my brain starts to think that’s the accurate ratio of negative to positive in the world.  What that’s doing is creating some called the medical school syndrome – which, if you know people who’ve been to medical school, during the first year of medical training, as you read through a list of all the symptoms and diseases that could happen, suddenly you realize you have all of them.

…See what we’re finding is it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality.  And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.

…”Shawn is asked, why do you waste your time studying happiness at Harvard?  Seriously, what does a Harvard student possible have to be unhappy about?”  Embedded within that question is the key to understanding the science of happiness.  Because what that question assumes is that our external world is predictive of our happiness levels, when in reality, if I know everything about your external world, I can only predict 10% of your long term happiness.  90% of your long term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world.  And if we can change it, if we can change our formula for happiness and success, what we can do is change the way that we can then affect reality.  What we found is that only 25% of job successes are predicted by I.Q.  75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat.

…We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success…Most companies and schools follow a formula for success, which is this: If I work harder, I’ll be more successful.  And if I’m more successful, then I’ll be happier.  That undergirds most of our parenting styles, our managing styles, the way that we motivate our behavior.

…And the problem is it’s scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons.  First, every time your brain has a success, you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like.  You got good grades, now you have to get better grades, you got into a good school and after you get into a better school, you got a good job, now you have to get a better job, you hit your sales target, we’re going to change your sales target.  And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there.  What we’ve done is we’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society.  And that’s because we think we have to be successful, then we’ll be happier.

…But the real problem is our brains work in the opposite order.  If you have raise somebody’s level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed.  Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise.  In face, what we’ve found is that every single business outcome improves.  Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed.  You’re 37% better at sales.  Doctors are 19% faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stresses.  Which means we can reverse the formula.  If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully as we’re able to work harder, faster and more intelligently.

…We’ve found that you can train your brain to become more positive.  In just a 2-minute span of time done for 21 days in a row, we can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully….write down three things that you’re grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day.  And at the end of that, your brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first.

…Journaling about one positive experience you’ve had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it.  Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters.  We find that meditations allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we’ve been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand.  And finally, random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness.  We get people, when they open up their inbox, to write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in the social support network.

…And by doing these activities and by training our brain just like we train our bodies, what we’ve found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but create a real revolution.

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Thank you Paco for sharing & the inspiration

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23 thoughts on “25% of job success is predicted by I.Q. 75% is predicted by your optimism levels…”

  6. It’s funny…I am in a facilitator course currently that deals with living wih chronic issues. The main message is that the mind is able to help you work through the tough days if you allow it. I love the group of future instructors that are coming out of the course, because we all follow this belief. Your message today is so relevant. Thanks, as always, for the good stuff!

    Like

    Reply

  11. Reblogged this on Space for lasam and commented:

    25% of job success is predicted by I.Q. 75% is predicted by your optimism levels…


    25% of job success is predicted by I.Q. 75% is predicted by your optimism levels…

    March 9, 2012 By David Kanigan

    ————————————

    Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard. Worthy video. I’ve pulled some of his points from the video below:

    …Why? Why is it that some of you are so high above the curve in terms of your intellectual ability, athletic ability, music ability, creativity, energy levels, your resiliency in the face of challenge, your sense of humor?

    …when I turn on the news, it seems like the majority of the information is not positive, in fact it’s negative. Most of it’s about murder, corruption, diseases, nature disasters. And very quickly, my brain starts to think that’s the accurate ratio of negative to positive in the world. What that’s doing is creating some called the medical school syndrome – which, if you know people who’ve been to medical school, during the first year of medical training, as you read through a list of all the symptoms and diseases that could happen, suddenly you realize you have all of them.

    …See what we’re finding is it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.

    …”Shawn is asked, why do you waste your time studying happiness at Harvard? Seriously, what does a Harvard student possible have to be unhappy about?” Embedded within that question is the key to understanding the science of happiness. Because what that question assumes is that our external world is predictive of our happiness levels, when in reality, if I know everything about your external world, I can only predict 10% of your long term happiness. 90% of your long term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world. And if we can change it, if we can change our formula for happiness and success, what we can do is change the way that we can then affect reality. What we found is that only 25% of job successes are predicted by I.Q. 75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat.

    …We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success…Most companies and schools follow a formula for success, which is this: If I work harder, I’ll be more successful. And if I’m more successful, then I’ll be happier. That undergirds most of our parenting styles, our managing styles, the way that we motivate our behavior.

    …And the problem is it’s scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons. First, every time your brain has a success, you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like. You got good grades, now you have to get better grades, you got into a good school and after you get into a better school, you got a good job, now you have to get a better job, you hit your sales target, we’re going to change your sales target. And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there. What we’ve done is we’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society. And that’s because we think we have to be successful, then we’ll be happier.

    …But the real problem is our brains work in the opposite order. If you have raise somebody’s level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In face, what we’ve found is that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You’re 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19% faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stresses. Which means we can reverse the formula. If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully as we’re able to work harder, faster and more intelligently.

    …We’ve found that you can train your brain to become more positive. In just a 2-minute span of time done for 21 days in a row, we can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully….write down three things that you’re grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that, your brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first.

    …Journaling about one positive experience you’ve had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it. Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. We find that meditations allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we’ve been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand. And finally, random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness. We get people, when they open up their inbox, to write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in the social support network.

    …And by doing these activities and by training our brain just like we train our bodies, what we’ve found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but create a real revolution.

    ——————————————————-

    Thank you Paco for sharing & the inspiration

    Like

    Reply
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