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  • If I ask you a question like how fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom,

  • scientists change the answer to how fast does the average child learn how to read in that

  • classroom and then we tailor the class right towards the average. And what I posit and

  • what positive psychology posits, is that if we study what is merely average, we will remain

  • merely average. Maybe we can glean information, not just how to move people up to the average,

  • but how we can move the entire average up- at our companies and schools worldwide. What

  • we're finding is it's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through

  • which your brain views your world that shapes your reality, and if we can change the lens,

  • not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single education and business

  • outcome at the same time. 90% of your long term happiness is predicted not by the external

  • world, but by the way your brain processes the world. What we found is that only 25%

  • of job successes are predicted by IQ. 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. Here's how we get to health: 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. First, every time your

  • brain has a success, you just change the goal post for what success looks like - you got

  • good grades, now you have to get better grades, you got into a good school now you have to

  • get into a better school. And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain

  • never gets there. And that's because we think we have to be successful then we'll be happier.

  • If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences

  • what we call a happiness advantage. Which is your brain at positive, performs significantly

  • better than does negative neutral stress. Your brain at positive is 31% more

  • productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You're 37% better at sales. If

  • we can find a way to becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more

  • successfully. Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you're positive has

  • 2 functions: Not only does it make you happier, it turns on all the learning centers in your

  • brain. We found that there are ways you can train your brain to be able to become more

  • positive. We've done these things and research now, and every single company that I've worked

  • with: Getting them to write down 3 new things that they're grateful for for 21 days in a

  • row: Their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative,

  • but for the positive first. Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. Journaling

  • about one positive experience you've had in the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive

  • it. We find that meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been

  • creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once. 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 someone in their social support network. By doing

  • these activities, what we found is that we can reverse the formula for happiness and

  • success and then doing so create a real revolution.

If I ask you a question like how fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom,

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