Increase Your Happiness Intelligence

We hear a lot about our emotional intelligence these days. Do you take time to increase your Happiness Intelligence? This is much more important to your longstanding success and satisfaction than your EI or IQ. Let’s explore this further:

Happiness is available to each of us throughout the day. It’s a matter of choice, an inside job. In any moment we can choose to be happy, yet this is a rare quality because so few make the decision. Choosing to be happy isn’t difficult. It just takes a little practice. Few do this because of habit and an unwillingness to reprogram themselves for better results.

Shawn Achor, a Harvard Professor, teaches a Positive Psychology course. It’s the most popular class in all of Harvard. It’s popular not just because it’s fun and enlightening, but because it works and produces results. Shawn defines happiness as doing what you love. It’s what gives you meaning to your life.

Shawn’s studies have proven that we all have the power to be happier. This is developed by making a conscious decision to be happy and then develop and strengthen your discipline to keep moving in that direction. His research shows that 75% of success comes from your sense of optimism and social connections. The remaining 25% is from your “smartness”.

Shawn doesn’t believe in the glass being 1/2 full or 1/2 empty – that’s a scarcity thought. There’s always a pitcher nearby so it doesn’t really matter. We’re all in this together – let’s share our talents and fill up the glass so we all win!

Shawn’s studies prove that happiness is:

A choice
Vibrant and spreads
An advantage

To begin increasing your Happiness Intelligence here’s a few easy activities to get you started. As with anything new, you can’t just read it and expect it to stick. You’ve got to DO it. The choice is yours – do you want to get happier and healthier or not?

Work on your Happy Hygiene – this will take a couple of minutes/day to build this habit. You can tell it’s working because you feel happier and better.
- Begin your happy day by thinking of 3 things every morning that you’re grateful for. Do this immediately when you wake up. Make this your morning ritual.
- No fair repeating the same 3 things each day. Live in the moment and have three unique things every day.
- Relive your meaningful and fulfilling moments.
Make it your mission to give a positive comment to someone each day. You win and so do they. Spread the love.
Diversify your Meaningful Portfolio – the more items that give you joy and meaning the greater your happiness and wellbeing. Expand your list of items and make a game of it.
Unplug – use your discipline to block out the noise of hyper-connectivity. Most of what is being broadcast is contrary to your Happiness Intelligence. The world isn’t in as bad of shape as the news agencies would like you to believe.
Eliminate the noise in your head – stop the negative and demeaning chatter that you listen to all day, every day. Begin broadcasting your own great feeling news. This chatter will gradually diminish as you begin increasing your Happiness Intelligence.
Visualize good feeling events– studies show the brain can’t tell the difference from a memory or a new visualization. Begin visualizing something you’re looking forward to. When you do this you get 2X the pleasure – the first is the visualization (anticipation), followed up by the actual event.