If you’re into professional development, you’ve probably come across the name of Martin Seligman, Ph.D. He’s the Optimism guru, the man who developed the theory of Learned Optimism. Optimism is the facilitator of all the emotional intelligence competencies, which increases our success. Seligman’s rigorous research has established that optimists are more productive and accomplish more and this is important knowledge for the workplace.

Success, yes, but what about happiness? We’re all seeking happiness, aren’t we? Especially in our work, where we spend the majority of our lives?

Recently, Seligman has turned his attention to studying what he calls Authentic Happiness. In a recent article, “Pleasure, Meaning & Eudaimonia,” Seligman reports important new research addressing the notion that the American public thinks happiness equals pleasure. He calls this the hedonic view, that a life that maximizes the amount of positive feelings and minimizes the amount of negative feelings is a happy life.

He proposes that there are two things wrong with this idea, and that there are, in fact, three paths to happiness.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE HEDONIC VIEW?
First of all, that cheery countenance we equate with pleasure – the big smile and sparkling eyes – it’s called “positive affectivity” in psychological circles, is hereditary. Therefore it’s normally distributed in the population. Therefore about half of us just aren’t that way, and aren’t likely to become that way, no matter what.

So, don’t insist on a bright faade in yourself or your employees; it doesn’t indicate much, after all.

The second thing wrong with the hedonic view is that a life based on positive feelings of pleasure — an orgasm, a back rub, or a full stomach – does not bring happiness. He refers, instead, to what Aristotle called “Eudaimonia,” the Good life, which refers to the “pleasures” of contemplation – that sort of deep absorption and immersion that we now call “flow”.

You can already see that this fits right into our work lives!

THREE PATHS OF HAPPY LIVES
The core thesis in Authentic Happiness is there are three paths to a happy life:
1. The Pleasant Life – which consists of having as many pleasures — the Hollywood view.
2. The Good Life – which consists of knowing what your signature strengths are, and then recrafting your work, leisure and relationships so you can have more flow in your life.
3. The Meaningful Life – which consists of using your signature strengths in the service of something you believe is larger than you.IMPORTANT NEW EVIDENCE:
PLEASURE DOESN’T ADD TO SATISFACTION

Two recent research studies, done independently, have confirmed that hedonic motives – pursuing pleasure, enjoyment and comfort, don’t correlate with happiness, but eudaimonic motives do – pursuing personal growth, development of your potential, achieving personal excellence, and contributing to the lives of others.

SO WHAT’S A GOOD PLAN FOR HAPPINESS IN THE NEW YEAR?
1. Find our where the Strengths are.

A good place to start is to take the StrengthsFinder(tm) Profile (www.susandunn.cc/courses.htm) and find out what your signature strengths are. Passing it around the office works well too! It’s like the DISC; it shows everyone what’s going on.

This assessment, compiled from interviews of over 2,000,000 subjects is based on the premise that because our parents, teachers, managers, and therapists have focused on our weaknesses and tried to make us well-rounded, most of us don’t even know what our innate strengths are. Once you discover your top 5 innate strengths from the 34 possibilities – Activator, Focus, Maximizer, Intellection, Empathy, Deliberativeness, Futuristic, etc.), you can achieve consistent near-excellence without much stress if you recraft your life around them. This would give you the Good Life!

The closer someone’s work fits their innate strengths, the more true satisfaction they’re going to have on the job. The better they’ll work, the more they can concentrate and be in flow, the more productive they’ll be, and the “happier” they’ll be at their job. The StrengthsFinder(tm) Profile is a wonderful tool for managers and bosses. I’ve found it to be true that some people don’t know what their strengths are, while some know those traits very well, but have been conditioned to consider them weaknesses. These are innate strengths – things we were born with and will always have, and are unique ways of looking at the world, making decisions, relating to people, and doing jobs.

No, this isn’t new ; it’s a new twist on the old “don’t try to teach a pig to sing,” but it keeps coming up, because it keeps not happening!

2. Next, write your Personal Mission Statem (http://www.franklincovey.com/missionbuilder/index.html).

Take the time to define your values, principles, and what matters most to you in your life. Then use this as a touchstone for making decisions, and for framing your organization’s mission and spreading it around. (This is Primal Leadership!)

Chances are your organization has a Mission Statement already, but if it doesn’t, this would be a good time to write one, collaboratively, if possible. You can see that getting everyone behind the “mission,” the “bigger picture,” will add greatly to job satisfaction.

3. Attach meaning to what you do, what your department does, your organization does, and help others see and feel the mission part of it.

The person who’s answering the phone, for instance, isn’t “just answering their phone,” they’re representing your company to the outside world and a key player in the success of your group mission.

In sum, whether or not “pleasures” can occur in the workplace, the deeper satisfactions of life can.

The more you can provide opportunities for personal growth, development of potential, respect for strengths, opportunities for personal excellence, and the kind of atmosphere that allows for deep absorption in meaningful work and “flow,” the happier everyone is likely to be. It could be that employees are more after this sort of experience than pizza parties and hoopla.

Susan Dunn, MA, Marketing Coach,
http://www.webstrategies.cc. Marketing consultation,
implementation, website review, SEO optimization, article
writing and submission, help with ebooks and other
strategies. Susan is the author or How to Write an eBook
and Market It on the Internet. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc
for information and free ezine. Specify Checklist.