Someday and the Happy Secret To Better Work

Recently I came across a TED talk by Shawn Achor titled “The Happy Secret to Better Work” and it reminded me of a talk I gave almost three years ago. Perhaps you’ve heard me mention “Someday” to you before, but if not…well, now you have. My talk and video pale in comparison to what Shawn put together, which you can see here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work

A few points I want to make about this brilliant piece of work.

First, I’ve written before about humor in presentations, and this is one of the funniest talks I have ever seen. Shawn doesn’t go out of his way to try to be funny, he lets the humor flow naturally from the content. As a result, it’s brilliant.

Second, he ties to what I tried to get across in my Someday talk, and that is we often are so focused on “the next thing” to bring us happiness that we often forget all the things we have already accomplished. We all need a reminder to stop and reflect upon what we have already accomplished in our lives. “If happiness is on the other side of success, then we’ll never get there.”

Lastly, there is great power in positivity. I truly believe this, because I’ve seen it in myself. But that’s a post waiting for a different day.

For now, go watch the video. It’s less than 15 minutes of your day and it can help make you a much happier person from this day forward.