by pressablealiassolutionscom
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Welcome to Insights and Implications!
Welcome to Insights and Implications. This month we cover some very intriguing psychological research that adds additional perspective to the principles behind how the mind works.
Happy Spring!
All of us at Insight Principles
The “Happiness Advantage”
Can being happy actually boost your performance? The answer is a resounding yes, according to the latest psychological research. Here are just some of the findings:
- 75% of job success is predicted by optimism level, while IQ level predicts job success only 25% of the time.
- People who are in a positive state compared to those in a negative, neutral, or stressed state are:
- 31% more productive
- Have a 37% increase in sales
- Experience less burnout, more resilience, less job turnover
When researchers looked closely at the brain, they discovered the chemical dopamine is released in the brain when you are happy. Dopamine makes you feel good but it also turns on ALL the learning centers of the brain. Not surprising, when all your learning centers are turned on, your IQ rises, as does your creativity and energy levels.
I remember an interview with the legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach, John Wooden. His team was on a winning streak and after yet another win a reporter said to him, “You must be pleased with the way the team is performing. Coach Wooden’s reply confounded the reporter. He said, “No, I am not pleased. The team is not having fun and it’s only a matter of time before they start making mistakes. I’m going into the locker room right now to talk to them about this.”
The psychological research on happiness and peak performance probably confirms your personal experience. Remember the most fun you ever had at work and you will recognize that these happy times were also highly productive irrespective of the task difficulty, time constraints, or resource limitations.
The research turns a popular belief upside down. Currently, the accepted formula for happiness is: work hard – be successful – find happiness. Seems the correct formula is: be happy and you will work effectively and be successful.
Many current researchers recommend you meditate, journal, exercise, and practice gratitude. Their findings suggest that these behaviors will bring more positive feelings into your life and result in higher levels of productivity and more success.
Our Insight Principles programs do not require you to learn any techniques or practices in order to find well-being. We teach people about the built-in capacity of the human mind to work well and enable optimal performance. A surefire way of bringing this innate capacity online is to insightfully see that the mind works only one way, from the inside-out.
Once you see this, you effectively eliminate all other possibilities. You stop spending mental energy chasing after external factors as either the source of your happiness or the cause of your unhappiness. You settle down mentally. Your natural wisdom, creativity, perspective show up.
Understanding how the mind works is the quickest and most dependable way we know to find happiness. There may be difficult situations and unpredictable circumstances to encounter at work and in life. There are many reasons for having bad days. However, you are always seeing life through the gift or power of thought. Your thinking is the only thing between you and your well-being. Find your well-being and you will be in the ideal position to perform at your best.
– Sandy Krot