You're Doing Happy Wrong

In this podcast, we’re reviewing how to be happy (how to live that good good life!) and the impact of happiness in the workplace!

According to Shawn Achor, a Harvard grad and psychologist who studied the science behind happiness and success, he found that the formula to happiness is the opposite of what most society believes and knows. It’s our positivity level in the present, which has a direct correlation to our happiness and success, and has us experience what is called he calls, the Happiness Advantage. 

 When the Happiness Advantage is applied to an organization, the company experiences: 

●       Superior productivity

●       More resilience

●       Less burnout

●       Less turnover

●       Greater sales

Tune into this podcast to get the full formula to happiness and success, and learn what you can start doing TODAY to rewire your brain and help you work more optimistically and successfully!

Transcript

Unknown 0:07
Hi all, welcome to empower house life coaching

Unknown 0:10
The podcast.  My name is Amanda Escobedo, and I'm your life coach pro, conscious design expert, master of removing mental blockers and upgrading your thoughts, I'm the founder of the em powerhouse life coaching, and I'm your host, welcome to episode seven.  Per usual, I have a burning question for you.

Unknown 0:33
And my burning question is, How are you feeling about life? Are you satisfied, or are you unsatisfied. If you said unsatisfied, what needs to shift or what is it that you need to be happy or content? Are you waiting for that next promo? That next 20% pay increase? Are you waiting to purchase a home or buy your first investment property? Do you need to be making, I don't know, $200,000, $300,000,  1 million, 500 million?

Unknown 1:07
What's your number. What would it take for you to say, I'm living that Good Good Life? Life is beautiful. From the outside looking in, people might say you have a great career, you make great money, you have a great network, you're a good friend, and you're fun to be around. What could you possibly be unhappy about? But that question, it assumes your external world predicts your internal world. That your success, your Money, your house, your car, etc, is the formula to happiness. But that's not true, and here's why. Every time your brain reaches success, the goal post changes. You hit your sales goal, you're gonna have a bigger quota for next year. Once you get that promo, now you need another one. Once you get your house now you need a bigger house, the brain loves certainty, your comfort zone. But the brain also loves a healthy level of uncertainty, which is a variety, adventure, newness, and it loves growth. And once we reach our goals or become experts at whatever we' working to get good a,  we become bored and start to crave more something new.

Unknown 2:21
And new desires forming, this is a good thing. I believe our desires are a compass to our purpose. And when we follow our purpose, we start the process over of stretching out of our comfort zone into our discomfort zone, learning to adapt and leveling up into our end zone. We level up into the next evolution of ourselves. And this cycle, our growth, it never ends. And because this cycle, never ends. You never reach long term happiness, if your happiness is dependent on a goal post which never stays still, your success. Now the truth is, if I know everything about your external world, I or researchers, for that matter can only predict 10% of your long term happiness, 90% of your long term happiness is predicted by the way you process the world. According to Shawn Achor, a Harvard grad and psychologists who study the science behind happiness and success, he found that your positivity level in the present, it has a direct correlation to your happiness and your success, which is the opposite of what most of society believes, and knows. Let's dive deeper into this. So 25% of your success is determined by your IQ, 75% of your success is dependent on who you surround yourself with, your network and your positivity level, aka how you see the world. Now because you're a high achiever, I'm going to assume you've got a great IQ, you also have a great social and professional network. That has gotten you this far in your profession. But how's your positivity level. Sure, you're a great time and you're fun to be around but what happens to you when something goes wrong, when life throws you a curveball and you don't have control of the outcome. How do you respond, do you experience stress as a threat or a challenge. Do you fold, claim defeat business life for that matter, is full of brick walls of frustrations. And the most successful and satisfied people, they reframe their hardships as lessons not losses as opportunities, not misfortunes. They believe life is happening for them not to them and they figure out how to transition their struggles, into their muscle their strength, their resilience, their power. Now if this isn't you, don't worry, you're not alone. You're just normal, because our brains are naturally wired to be negative. It's our default mode. On average, 80% of our thoughts are negative. Our brain is scanning the world all day looking for danger, assuming anticipating interpreting the worst case scenario out of things so that it can protect you from danger. Additionally, 95% of your thoughts are repetitive, we're in habit mode. Our brain is trying to conserve your energy and be a very efficient machine. Now with these powers combined we are sitting in a lot of repeated negativity. Now if this is your first time hearing these statistics, don't be alarmed, I'd actually encourage you to give your brain some grace because it has good intentions for you. And actually, everything your mind, your body does for you has good intentions. But your mind and body's wisdom, they're great friends to us, but they're terrible masters. When we operate from our auto mode, our default mode, we don't live a to our full potential and be we don't live happy and fulfilled lives. But the good news here is you are not your brain, you have the power to rewire how you think and upgrade your thoughts and increase your positivity level. And when you increase your positivity level in the present, you experienced what's called a Happiness Advantage. Now The Happiness Advantage was coined by Shawn Achor, and this means your brain at a positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stress. Your intelligence rises your energy increases, you're more creative, and every single business outcome improves, for example, your brain is 31% more productive, sitting at a positive than negative, neutral or stress, you're 37% better at sales, doctors are 19% faster and more accurate at coming up with a correct diagnosis for you. The Happiness Advantage in companies. It equates to superior productivity more resilience less burnout, less turnover greater sales, and dopamine, which is your feel good chemical related to reward and pleasure, it not only makes you happier, it turns on all of your learning centers for your brain, allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.

Unknown 7:19
Now, adapting to the world in a different way means there's a paradigm shift, you start to change how you see things, including yourself, and then things you see start to change. This experience is so empowering it empowers you to have a vision of possibilities and solve any problem in life, everything becomes figure-out-able. You start to realize, you can do hard things and grow through what you go through. Maya Angela says, you may not control all the events that happen to you but you can decide not to be reduced by them. I remember when I was going through my last two heart surgeries when I was 27 I didn't realize the power of my mind during that time, but I'm so blessed to have adopted the right mindset before that surgery. At that time I kept having these weird symptoms where my heart just kept getting stuck in the wrong beat when I was exercising or running to the bus as an example. I lived in San Francisco at the time so running o the bus was normal. But I kept having frequent visits to the ER because my heart was getting stuck. And because of that experience, I was looking forward to that darn surgery, there was no fear, I just had excitement. I was tired of ER visits, I just wanted to work out without any issues. And what was always funny to me was, Every time I told someone knew about my upcoming surgery, seeing the fear cross over their face was priceless. Because again, I was excited. Everyone looked at me like I was the crazy one. But what fed my emotion of excitement was a number of things. Sure, heart surgery is dangerous, there's a risk with any surgery, and I could have chosen to focus on that, but I chose to focus on other things. And for me, when I compared my surgery to other heart surgery patients, my surgery was a lower risk. Number two, I had a great life. I had no real stressors. My parents were amazing and I grew up in a very safe environment. I've never had to dodge any bullets or worried about getting beat up at school. And for me, this was my first real curveball the universe or God was throwing at me. I didn't believe God was going to take me out with his first pitch. I remember thinking, God, challenge accepted.

Unknown 9:39
Let's go.

Unknown 9:41
I was looking forward to seeing how this experience was going to contribute to my life because I truly believed, and I still believe to this day that every experience happens for a reason and has an opportunity to serve you. That was my mindset going into surgery. Now waking up from surgery was a whole other story that ride was not easy. I woke up in the ICU with a tube in my throat and immediately started gagging and the nurses said they couldn't excavate me until I could prove I could breathe on my own, But I had a tube down my throat, and was gagging and the more you gag saliva blocks the airway of the tube and then you can't breathe. I was struggling like that for two hours. And then when they finally took the tube out, you have a new level of pain, I had chest tubes rubbing up against my ribs, which were placed there to help drain the extra fluid, and any movement. These chest tubes just rubbed up against me and was so painful. A few days later they finally remove the chest tubes, and then you realize, Wow, I have a broken sternum, which feels like a really fat baby sitting on your chest and makes it hard to breathe. And then toward the end of the week I'm super excited to be released from this hospital. They run one more test on me and tell me, I'm still leaking. I went into that surgery with a moderate to severe leak and they told me I had a moderate to severe leak. They said, I would need another surgery for them to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. That was the first time, I was scared because I was like, This surgery is serious and things can go wrong. And they did. I cried for two days straight until they scheduled me for my next surgery. But I remember waking up to that rocky song, that rocky anthem was in my head and I was washing my face staring in the mirror and I was like, it's go time. And when the physician assistants came in to get me, I wasn't crying for the first time I was smiling. And I remember there were like five of them saying whoa, someone has a new attitude, and I said, I'm ready, I'm not going out that easy. And I share this story because my friends, this is an example of processing stress as a challenge, and not a threat, and a challenge that will be overcome. I knew in my heart, I would defeat this just because I refused to be defeated, and you can learn to do the same. You can start to see the world in a different light today, start to increase your positivity level in the presence, no matter what curveballs are thrown at you, you can find control and certainty, from within, even when you don't have control of your external factors, but

Unknown 12:30
how do we do this?

Unknown 12:32
Well, according to Shawn Achor, there are a few things you can start doing today to start increasing your positivity level in the present. I'm calling this the 21 Day Challenge. Now before you get nervous, by the 21 day commitment because you're so busy, your daily commitment will cost you two minutes a day. So no excuses. And your daily commitment options look like, number one, gratitude. Now Shawn Achor recommends that you identify three new things you're grateful for. As I mentioned before, your brain is wired to scan the world looking for danger. Now this exercise of gratitude will change the pattern of your brain so it starts to scan the world looking for the positive as the first thing rather than the negative. Number two, journal out a win or a victory from the day. Now writing out your win will give your brain an opportunity to relive the experience in give you a surplus of energy. Number three, exercise. Now this could be two minute planks, some sit ups, walk, whatever movement or exercise you desire, be consistent. This will help train your brain that behavior matters. Number four, meditation today with all of our emails or apps or social media or phone alerts, we become easily distracted. Now meditation will help you focus on the task at hand. And when we're focused, we become accomplished and it feels good to have accomplishments. Number five, conscious acts of kindness. Now this could be a multitude of things, sending an email to a direct report, recognizing their hard work, or publicly praising a peer or employee for their efforts. Every day, consciously do an act of kindness. To recap, your two minute options for your 21 day challenge, they include, number one, daily gratitude. Number two, journaling, your wins. Number three, exercise. Number four, meditation. Number five, conscious acts of kindness. Now when you commit to one of these activities for 21 days for two minutes a day, you will rewire your brain and find yourself working more optimistically, and successfully. These exercises will improve how you see and experience the world. And don't get me wrong, incremental improvement is great, but it keeps you in a small pond. But what we want for you is to take you out beyond the pond, that's where all the transformation takes place, you create a whole new identity for yourself. Now if you'd like to learn how to increase your happiness without sacrificing your success, and learn how to grow beyond the pond. I'd love to give you with a free coaching session. Together we create an inner game strategy for you that has you making an impact while making an income and living a life of momentum, excitement and fulfillment. To schedule your free session, go to www.empowerhousecoaching.co Once again, www.empowerhousecoaching.co Alright folks, I'm Amanda Escobedo, and you've been listening to empowerhouse life coaching, the podcast. If you haven't yet, please go to Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe review this podcast. Join me next time in another conversation about removing mental blockers, upgrading your thoughts, and elevating to new heights. Thank you for listening!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai