The Happiness Advantage

I'm reading "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor and wanted to pen my thoughts on it as I read along. And I'm taking the Happiness Advantage DeCal.

Watch this space for updates as I read more

Introduction: 

I would title this Waiting to be Happy, which kind of reminded me in a strange way of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Essentially Acher says we are living milestone to milestone, in the false sense of belief that next milestone will bring us happiness. We think happiness follows success but the reality is the opposite. 

Discovering the Happiness Advantage

In this chapter the author writes of how he saw Harvard as a privilege that can open doors, yet many students lose sight of that, complaining incessantly about the workload. In contrast are the children of Soweto township, a majority of whom loved schoolwork, as many were the first in their family to even get schooling. 

I can personally relate. Berkeley is a privilege that I truly cherish and appreciate. The privilege comes with workload, but isn't that to be expected if you go to a top university.  I was starved of education till age 12. I was in a special education classroom that still taught me kindergarten level skills even at age 12. It was never expected I would get exposure to mainstream academics, get a high school diploma, let alone a college education.  College, and that too Berkeley is a privilege, which adds to my self-esteem, my self-confidence, my dignity. It will open different doors, that are closed in special education. So workload is just a one part of the glorious education. Education itself is a privilege. For this starving mind, the search for knowledge can never end.

Berkeley is my magical place, my Hogwarts and a bonus is that it is the birthplace of the Disability Rights Movement. I look beyond the workload to appreciate the high quality of teaching and the way it expands my perspectives in my world view, how it helps me grow personally, and how it nudges me in my future life towards working on social justice issues and hopefully making into reality positive societal changes too. 

I liked how Acher termed Positive Psychology as "what makes people thrive and excel" rather than bringing the focus on the unhappy and bringing them back to normal.  

I also feel for instance that Autism/Disability is treated as a deficit model which is very devaluing to the autistic. Team meetings during my elementary years  of ABA therapy for instance was invariably dominated with a litany of all that I WOULD NOT or COULD NOT do. Wouldn't it be nice if the child, (who is usually present in these meetings to demonstrate said lack of skill) could also hear a litany of what they CAN DO as well. There are going to be areas that we may never catch up on or never learn. Yet in other areas we may just outstrip our NT peers. It is going to be hard to be average. 

A parallel to Acher's "Cult of the Average" in the autism space is meeting the milestone of "age-appropriate behavior," which in itself is a moving target as society shifts attitudes. 

As Acher's points out we are starved of happiness since we are so focused on the negatives whether it's from external news or internal ourselves. Our brains have been crammed with facts and theory but not how to "maximize the brain's potential to find meaning and happiness".

7 principles

1. Happiness Advantage
2. Fulcrum & Lever
3. Tetris Effect
4. Falling Up
5. Zorro Circle
6. 20 second rule
7. Social Investment