If I’m being honest, I’m not the least bit thrilled about the arrival of the new school year. Of course September is always an exciting time when you’re getting settled and meeting all your new professors and classmates. For me, though, that excitement wears off about one hour into my three-hour lectures. I’m sure I can’t be the only one who’s mourning the loss of carefree summer days and being able to watch Netflix without the looming, guilt inducing thoughts of an upcoming assignment.
When I’m not watching movies or shopping online, I’m usually wandering around the web searching for articles to read and videos to watch that will also distract me from thinking about school. I recently came across a video of psychologist Shawn Achor on TedTalk speaking about happiness and the power of positive thinking for achieving success. I’ve watched this video a few times before and it was just the thing I needed to reignite my inspiration.
I have always believed in the strength of positive thinking and the benefits of making the best out of every situation. But, like most students, I can struggle with keeping that positive attitude when it comes to school. It seems like something I’m just trying to power through until graduation.
Shawn explains that most of us have a similar assumption about happiness and success and how it is achieved. This perception that people tend to hold about happiness is that it exists on the other side of success. When we set goals we often believe that by achieving these goals it will automatically bring us happiness. So in order to get to that happiness, we will work hard to get into school and then work hard to get a job and then work hard to maintain a career. Usually done with that goal of success and happiness in mind. Of course nothing is wrong with working hard to achieve your goals as long as you’re remaining happy. Yes, not all work will necessarily always make you happy. School, especially, can be stressful and have a serious toll on your mental health. People think that they just have to endure the stress and make sacrifices just so they can get through and become successful, so that later on they can have happiness and fulfillment. This is the most common way people think of success. Unfortunately, our brains actually work in the opposite way we think they do.
Only 10% of our overall happiness is predicted by our external lives. That’s it.
That’s the key to understanding the science of happiness: our external worlds are not fully predictive of our happiness. Which means that 90% of your happiness is predicted by something else. That something is the way your brain processes the world.
Your brain, when positive, performs significantly better than when negative, neutral or stressed. During this time your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, and your energy levels rise.
Shawn explains that if we find a way to stay positive in the present while we’re working towards our goals, our brains can work even more successfully.
So how do we do that?
Take 2 minutes out of your day for 21 days in a row and:
- Write down 3 new things that you are grateful for every day. Your brain will start to retain a pattern and start seeing the positive in the world
- Journal about something positive/a positive experience you’ve had in the last 24 hours. This allows your brain to relive it
- EXERCISE. This teaches your brain that your behavior matters. I know it seems like during school there is just no time to go to the gym or get that physical activity in, but you need to make time for yourself. Physical activity relieves so much stress.
- Meditating. This allows you to focus on one task at hand rather than doing multiple tasks at once. Focusing on the present keeps you calm. There are many apps that offer guided meditation and you can basically do it anywhere.
- Random acts of kindness. This ones pretty simple. Doing nice things for others makes you feel good.
So try to do these activities every day and see how it changes your perspective and affects your success in school. Set your goals and work hard to achieve them while keeping an optimistic state of mind and you will see how much more efficiently your brain will work!
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