Most people think that people are happy because they are successful. But a team of researchers has found that happiness is often what leads to success.
The team reviewed 225 previous studies involving more than 275,000 people to find the connections between life success, well-being, and desirable personal characteristics. They found that happy people are in general more successful personally and professionally than unhappy people. And, happiness came first.
Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky and her team examined studies involving three types of evidence – cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs – to show how happiness and positive affect are related to success. The results suggest that happiness does lead to behaviors that often produce further success in work, relationships and health, and these successes result in part from a person’s positive affect. Also, evidence from the cross-sectional studies confirm that a person’s well-being is associated with positive perceptions of self and others, sociability, creativity, pro-social behavior, a strong immune system, and effective coping skills.
Happy people are more likely to work actively toward new goals and build new resources, according to the findings. They are more self-assured, optimistic, and energetic. Others find them likable and sociable. They are less likely to experience conflict with coworkers and more likely to be productive and dependable employees.
The analysis also found that happy people are healthier. They are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, such as exercise and preventive exams, and are less likely to smoke, abuse drugs, and eat unhealthful foods or unhealthy quantities of food. When they do experience illness or surgery, they tend to recover more quickly than unhappy people.
The authors of the study summarize it this way: "Happy people appear to be more successful than their less happy peers in three primary life domains: work, relationships, and health." |
