Last week I mentioned how powerful our team call with Shawn Achor the "Professor of Happiness" from Harvard was. He is Professor of Positive Psychology at Harvard University and teaches the single most popular course that Harvard has had in it's entire history. (You can learn more about him and his work at his website www.aspirant.com ). What I love about his work is that it gives scientific rigor to what most of us have known instinctively all our lives.

My mind is still reeling with the richness of what he shared with us and I just had to share another tidbit that's worth chewing on.

So often we think in terms of "If I get 'x' done then I'll be happy." or "It will feel so fulfilling when I get 'x' accomplished" or "when I achieve a certain level of productivity it will be so satisfying". In other words we've somehow had the idea embedded in our conciousness (I know I do at least) that productivity, achievement or success is a precursor to being happy. Well, some of Shawn's most recent research shows almost the exact opposite to be true.

They took a group of 4-year-olds and divided them into two groups. Each child was given the task of arranging some blocks in a certain way. The first group was simply assigned the task and went to work. The second group was asked to first think of their happiest moment and then they were given their task. The startling result was that the second group was shown to achieve a successful result much faster. In fact, they were shown to be 50% more productive than the first group in terms of both speed and accuracy.

What was even more interesting was that they repeated this study but this time introduced an alteration with three groups of doctors. The doctors were given the very common task that physicians routinely perform of reading a patient chart and coming to an accurate diagnosis based on the data. Group A was assigned to first spend a period of time reading medical journals and then making their diagnoses. Group B was to simply go right to diagnosing the charts and Group C was to first think of something that made them feel happy and to then perform their diagnostic task. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) Group C again performed 50% better and faster than either Group A or B.

So, you want to be more productive? Want to get more satisfaction out of what you do? Feel happy first! I'm reminded of some of the words from a hymn I was taught in church many years ago:

"Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear? Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly and you will be singing as the days go by."

Choose to be happy and grateful first and watch the Law of Attraction begin to manifest in your life.

Make it an awesome day!

Brian and Sarah Gwyn, goldMind group.com