「分享快樂工作的秘訣」- Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work
□When I was 7 years old, and my sister was just 5 years old, we were playing on top of a bunk bed. I was 2 years older than my sister at the time — I mean, I’m 2 years older than her now — but at the… at the time that meant she had to do everything that I wanted to do, and I wanted to play war. So we were up on top of our bunk beds. And on one side of the bunk bed, I… put out all of my G.I. Joe soldiers and weaponry. And on the other side were all my sister’s My Little Ponies, ready for a cavalry charge.
□There are differing accounts of what actually happened that afternoon, but since my sister is not here with us today… hmm… let me tell you the true story, which is my sister’s a little bit on the clumsy side. Somehow, without any help or push from her older brother at all, suddenly Amy disappeared off of the top of the bunk bed and landed with this crash on the floor. Now I nervously peered over the side of the bed to see what had befallen my fallen sister and saw that she had landed painfully on her hands and knees on all fours on the ground.
□I was nervous because my parents had charged me with making sure that my sister and I played as safely and as quietly as possible. And seeing as how I had accidentally broken Amy’s arm just one week before… heroically pushing her out of the way of an oncoming imaginary sniper bullet, for which I have yet to be thanked. I was trying as hard as I could — she didn’t even see it coming — I was trying as hard as I could to be on my best behavior.
□And I saw my sister’s face, this wail of pain and suffering and surprise, threatening to erupt from her mouth and threatening to wake my parents from the long winter’s nap for which they had settled. So I did the only thing my little frantic seven year-old brain could think to do to avert this tragedy. And if you have children, you’ve seen this hundreds of times before. I said, “Amy, Amy, wait. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Did you see how you landed? No human lands on all fours like that. Amy, I think this means you’re a unicorn.”
□Now that was cheating, because there was nothing in the world my sister would want more than not to be Amy the hurt five year-old little sister, but Amy the special unicorn. Of course, this was an option that was open to her brain at no point in the past. And you could see how my poor, manipulated sister faced conflict, as her little brain attempted to devote resources to feeling the pain and suffering and surprise she just experienced, or contemplating her new-found identity as a unicorn. And the latter won out. Instead of crying, instead of ceasing our play, instead of waking my parents, with all the negative consequences that would have ensued for me, instead a smile spread across her face, and she scrambled right back up onto the bunk bed with all the grace of a baby unicorn… with one broken leg.
□What we stumbled across… at this tender age of just 5 and 7 — we had no idea at the time — was something that was going be at the vanguard of a scientific revolution occurring two decades later in the way that we look at the human brain. What we had stumbled across is something called positive psychology, which is the reason that I’m here today and the reason that I wake up every morning.
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□I was an officer of Harvard to counsel students through the difficult four years. And what I found in my research and my teaching is that these students — no matter how happy they were with their original success of getting into the school — two weeks later their brains were focused, not on the privilege of being there, nor on their philosophy or their physics. Their brain was focused on the competition, the workload, the hassles, the stresses, the complaints.
□Embedded within that question is the key to understanding the science of happiness. Because what that question assumes is that our external world is predictive of our happiness levels. When in reality, if I know everything about your external world, I can only predict 10 percent of your long-term happiness. 90 percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world. And if we change it… if we change our formula for happiness and success, what we can do is change the way that we can then affect reality. What we found is that only 25 percent of job successes are predicted by I.Q. 75 percent of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.
□The absence of disease is not health. Here’s how we get to health: We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success. In the last three years, I’ve traveled to 45 different countries, working with schools and companies in the midst of an economic downturn. And what I found is that 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. That undergirds most of our parenting styles, our managing styles, the way that we motivate our behavior. And the problem is it’s scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons.
□First, every time your brain has a success, you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like. You got good grades, now you have to get better grades; you got into a good school and after you get into a better school; you got a good job, now you have to get a better job; you hit your sales target, we’re gonna change your sales target. And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there. What we’ve done is we’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society. And that’s because we think we have to be successful, then we’ll be happier.
□But the real problem is our brains work in the opposite order. If you can raise somebody’s level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive, performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, what we’ve found is that every single business’ outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You’re 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19% faster and more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed, which means we can reverse the formula. If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully as we’re able to work harder, faster and more intelligently.
□What we need to be able to do is to reverse this formula, so we can start to see what our brains are actually capable of, because dopamine, which floods into your system when you’re positive, has two functions. Not only does it make you happier, it turns on all of the learning centers in your brain, allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.。
□We’ve found that there are ways that you can train your brain to be able to become more positive in just a two-minute span of time, done for 21 days in a row. We can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully. We’ve done these things in research now in 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, 3 new things each day. And at the end of that, their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first.
□Journaling about one positive experience you’ve had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it. Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. 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 allows our brains to focus on the task at hand. 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 somebody in their social support network.
□And by doing these activities and by training your brain just like we train our bodies, what we’ve found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but create a real revolution. Thank you very much.
非常謝謝你們。當我七歲的時候，而我妹妹才五歲，我們在雙層床上玩。我那時大她兩歲–我是說，我現在也大她兩歲–但在…在當時那表示她必須要做所有我想做的事，而我想要玩戰爭遊戲。所以我們在雙層床上層。而在雙層床的一端，我…擺出我所有的美國大兵玩具和武器。而床的另一端全是我妹妹的彩虹小馬，準備好騎兵衝鋒陷陣。
那天下午實際發生的事有不同的解釋，但既然我妹妹今天沒有在這裡和我們一起…嗯…讓我告訴你們真正的故事，那就是我妹妹有點笨拙。不知怎的，在根本沒有她哥哥的任何幫助或是推力之下，Amy就突然從床的上層消失，隨著這轟然巨響摔落到地上。我緊張兮兮地越過床沿盯著，看看跌下去的妹妹發生什麼事，然後看到她痛苦的用雙手和雙膝、四肢著地之姿摔落地上。
我很緊張，因為我爸媽已經囑咐過我務必要和妹妹玩得盡可能地安全、安靜。有鑑於我在一個禮拜之前才不小心弄斷Amy的手臂…英雄般地推開她閃過一顆迎面而來想像中的狙擊子彈，還沒人為此感激我。我盡了全力–她甚至沒看到子彈過來–我竭盡所能地做出最好表現。
然後我看到妹妹的臉，痛苦、受難、驚嚇的哀號，預警著要從她的嘴裡迸出，並且預警著要將爸媽從冬天長長的深沉午覺中給吵醒。所以我做了這顆慌亂的七歲小腦袋能想到唯一的一件事，來避免這場悲劇。如果你有小孩，你過去看這已看過上百次了。我說：「Amy，Amy，等等。不要哭。別哭。妳有看到妳怎麼著地的嗎？沒有人類能像那樣四肢著地。Amy，我想這表示妳是一隻獨角獸。」
那是在作弊，因為在這世界上我妹妹最想當的不過就是一隻特殊的獨角獸，而不是受傷的五歲小妹妹Amy。當然，這是個過去從未在她腦袋裡開放的一個選項。而你可以看到我那可憐、被耍的妹妹面臨兩難衝突，因為她的小腦袋試著要將資源用在感受她剛剛才經歷的痛楚、苦難和驚嚇上，或是用在仔細思量著她新發現的獨角獸身分。而後者勝出了。沒有哭泣、沒有停下遊戲、沒有吵醒爸媽，帶來一切接踵而來對我不利的結果，而是笑容掛滿她的臉，然後她馬上爬回雙層床上，帶著所有獨角獸寶寶的喜悅…還有一隻受傷的腿。
我們當時碰巧發現的是…在那只有五歲和七歲的稚嫩年紀–我們那時毫無概念–那是某種東西，即將成為發生在二十年後我們觀察人類大腦的方法的科學革命先鋒。我們偶然發現的是一個叫做積極心理學的東西，這就是我今天在這裡的原因，也是我每天早上起床的原因。
而在研究和教學中我發現的是這些學生–不管他們一開始成功申請到這間學校有多麼開心–兩週後他們的腦袋專注的不是身在那裡的殊榮，也不是在他們的哲學或是物理學上。他們的腦袋專注的是競賽、工作量、困難、壓力、怨言。
深嵌在那問題中的是了解幸福科學的關鍵。因為那問題假定的是，我們的外在世界可以預示出我們的幸福等級。在現實生活中，如果我知道你外在世界的一切，我只能預測你10%的長期幸福。你90%的長期幸福不是由外在世界所預測，而是由你腦袋處理世界的方式去預測。如果我們改變它…如果我們改變幸福和成功的方程式，我們可以做的，是改變我們接著能夠影響現實的方式。我們發現的是只有25%在工作上的成功是用智商預測的。75%在工作上的成功是由你的樂觀等級、你的社會支持，以及你將壓力看成挑戰而非威脅的能力所預測的。
沒有疾病不代表健康。這是我們如何變得健康的方式：我們需要推翻幸福和成功的公式。在過去三年，我到45個不同的國家旅行，在經濟衰退時期中和學校及公司合作。我發現的是大部分的公司和學校都遵循一個成功方程式，即是這個：如果我更努力工作，我會更成功。而如果我更成功，那麼我會更開心。這支持了大部分我們的父母教導風格、我們的管理風格，激勵我們行為的方式。而問題是，這在科學上是有毛病而且反向後倒退的，有兩個原因。
首先，每次你的腦袋獲得成功，你就改變成功外貌的標竿。你得到好成績，現在你必須要得到更高的成績；你進入好學校，而之後你進了更好的學校；你得到一份好工作，現在你必須要得到更好的工作；你達到你的銷售目標，我們要改變你的銷售目標。然而如果幸福是在成功相反的那邊，你的頭腦永遠也到達不了。我們這社會所做的是將幸福推出了所認知的範疇。那是因為我們認為我們必須要成功，然後才會更快樂。
但真正的問題是，我們的腦袋是以相反的順序運作。如果你能提升某人現在的積極性程度，那麼他們的腦袋會體驗到我們現在所稱的幸福優勢，就是說你的腦袋處在積極狀態，表現得明顯地比在負面、中性或有壓力時更好。你的智能提升、創造力提升、活力水平提升。事實上，我們發現的是每一個企業的結果都進步了。你的腦袋處在正面積極狀態時的生產力比在負面、中性或有壓力狀態時高出31%。你在銷售上高出了37%。醫生們在積極正面，而不是負面、中性或有壓力狀態時，是19%更快且更準確地作出正確的診斷，這表示我們能徹底改變那公式。如果在當下我們能找到一種變得更正面積極的方法，那麼我們的腦袋就會更成功地運作，因為我們能夠更努力、更快速且更聰明地工作。
我們需要有能力去做的是徹底改變這個方程式，所以我們可以開始看看我們的腦袋實際上能夠做些什麼，因為當你在正面積極時會湧入身體系統的多巴胺有兩種功能。它不只讓你更開心，還能打開腦中的所有學習中樞，允許你以不同方式適應這世界
我們發現有方法讓你可訓練你的腦袋能夠在僅僅兩分鐘之內變得更積極正面，連續做21天便完成。我們實際上可以重組你的腦袋線路，讓你的腦袋實際上更樂觀且更成功地運作。我們在每一家曾合作過的公司中的研究中已經完成了這些事情，讓他們連續21天寫下三件新的他們所感謝的事，每天三件新的事情。最後，他們的腦袋開始記住一個審視世界的模式，不是負面，而是積極正面優先。
紀錄一件關於過去24小時內你有過的正面經驗，允許你的腦袋再次體驗它。鍛鍊會告誡你的腦袋，你的行為很重要。我們發現冥想讓你的腦袋克服文化造成的注意力不足過動症，那是我們一直以來因為嘗試著要一心多用所造成，冥想還允許我們的腦袋專注於手邊的事。最後，隨意的善意行為都是有意識的善意行為。我們有些人，當他們打開收件匣，寫下一封正面的郵件來讚揚或感謝在他們社交支持網絡的某人。
藉由做這些活動，以及像我們健身一樣地訓練你的腦袋，我們發現的是我們可以徹底改變幸福和成功的方程式，而這麼做，不只會創造出正面積極性的漣漪，而且還會創造出真正的革命。