scientists change the answer to how fast does the average child learn how to read in that

classroom and then we tailor the class right towards the average. And what I posit and

what positive psychology posits, is that if we study what is merely average, we will remain

merely average. Maybe we can glean information, not just how to move people up to the average,

but how we can move the entire average up- at our companies and schools worldwide. What

we're finding is it's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through

which your brain views your world that shapes your reality, and if we can change the lens,

not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single education and business

outcome at the same time. 90% of your long term happiness is predicted not by the external

world, but by the way your brain processes the world. What we found is that only 25%

of job successes are predicted by IQ. 75% of Job successes are predicted by your optimism

levels, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a

threat. Here's how we get to health: we need to reverse the formula for happiness and success.

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. First, every time your

brain has a success, you just change the goal post for what success looks like - you got

good grades, now you have to get better grades, you got into a good school now you have to

get into a better school. And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain

never gets there. And that's because we think we have to be successful then we'll be happier.

If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences

what we call a happiness advantage. Which is your brain at positive, performs significantly

better than does negative neutral stress. Your brain at positive is 31% more

productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You're 37% better at sales. If

we can find a way to becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more

successfully. Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you're positive has

2 functions: Not only does it make you happier, it turns on all the learning centers in your

brain. We found that there are ways you can train your brain to be able to become more

positive. We've done these things and research now, and 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: Their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative,

but for the positive first. Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. Journaling

about one positive experience you've had in the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive

it. 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 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 someone in their social support network. By doing

these activities, what we found is that we can reverse the formula for happiness and

success and then doing so create a real revolution.