Why Happiness Matters at Work

By Meghan Keaney Anderson with gratitude to Neil Pasricha

HubSpot
ThinkGrowth.org

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When I was younger I asked my father why he decided to become a social worker. He responded:

“There are two general approaches to work. You can find work you’re passionate about. Or you can find work that enables you to do things you’re passionate about in your spare time. I chose the former, but neither is wrong as long as you find space for what makes you happy.”

In recent years, companies — HubSpot included — have started to put a more deliberate emphasis on the health and happiness of their employees. According to economists at Warwick University happy employees are good for business. Through a series of studies, Economists Andrew Oswald, Eugenio Proto, and Daniel Sgroi found that employees who are happy with their jobs are measurably more productive in them — about 12% more productive to be precise.

To explore the idea of happiness and work, I sat down with Neil Pasricha, author of The Happiness Equation in a recent episode of the Growth Show. You can listen to the full 30 minute episode below or subscribe on iTunes.

How does one become happy? Turns out that’s the wrong question.

Happiness Is Not a Destination

“The happiness model we’re taught from a young age is actually completely backward,” Pasricha writes in The Happiness Equation.

It looks like this:

From The Happiness Equation — Neil’s Handwriting is better than mine.

Work hard. Achieve milestones. Find happiness. It’s an equation that makes sense on paper and mirrors the way a lot of us pursue it. If I can just get that promotion, I’ll be happier at work. If I just nail this interview and land my dream job, I’ll be set. But, Pasricha proposes: What if we flipped the equation? What if we started with happiness?

From The Happiness Equation — Seriously, look how pleasant his scrawl is.

“Now everything changes.” Pasricha writes. “Everything changes. If we start with being happy, then we feel great. We look great. We exercise. We connect. What happens? We end up doing great work.”

The theory is that trying to become happy misplaces your focus onto what is currently missing in your life. And that misplaced attention makes you pre-occupied with the future rather than getting the most out of today. He explains:

“We think happiness is a destination, when it’s actually a starting point. It enables all the positive outcomes in our lives if we choose to do it first.”

How to Maintain Happiness at Work

Okay, so you may be thinking, that sounds great and all but I’m stressed out, Neil. How am I supposed to be happy when I can’t think? This too, Pasricha boils down to a practical framework.

He calls it the “Space Scribble.” What the Space Scribble proposes is that work-life balance is not really about how much time you spend in- or out-of-the-office. Instead, work-life balance is about finding a mental balance between thought and action in all aspects of your life.

Think: In any balanced life, there should be times when you’re thinking heavily and holding back on action. You could be journaling, talking through something, or reflecting on a problem during a walk. The point is, your thoughts have time to process.

Do: Unceasing thought, however, can weigh you down. So you need to create opportunities to press pause on further deliberation and take action. Pasricha references exercise here, but it could be any activity where your mind is clear and your body in action.

Space: At the base of all of this is space away from both thought and action. Here, Pasricha says you have to be disciplined about carving out the time. Truly step back. No mobile phones, no occasional checks on your email — real space requires distance.

“Don’t think about space or downtime as ‘oh, you’re on vacation more,’” Pasricha explains. “Think about it as one of the competitive advantages you have to actually achieving more because your productivity and creativity is so increased after you get back.”

Finally, a word on burn: When I first saw the Space Scribble I assumed that burn was a bad thing. It sounded like something to be avoided. But to Pasricha, “burn” is not equivalent to burn-out. Burn-out happens when you let yourself stay in the burn phase for too long, but as long as you have a path back, burn can be an incredibly productive and exhilarating time. This is where the true passion comes out.

Could it Really Be That Easy?

What resonates about Pasricha’s view on happiness is how straightforward it all is. He’s skilled, both in writing and conversation, at boiling down the abstract into something practical and memorable. And while he manages to turn something as ineffable as happiness into a simple guidebook, he’s quick to tell you to take all of it with a grain of salt.

“No advice is true in every situation,” he says. “When we’re looking for advice, usually, we’re looking for an alibi. And the point is: if something [I wrote] resonates with you… it’s actually a reflection of you, not of me. You already had that feeling.”

What he hopes is to give you a framework for thinking about happiness — one that doesn’t require you having to wait for the future to bring it.

“If you want to make changes after this book, my reply is ‘it’s all you baby’”

You can hear more of Neil Pasricha’s views on happiness, and get a few easter eggs like his story on the origin of the word cliche, by listening to the Growth Show Podcast below.

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