The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success - and Sustaining Positive Change

Shawn Achor is a brilliant guy. His research and work hold both an insightful and refreshing view of the world. I'm a fairly optomistic and hopeful person. His book provided me with an even greater roadmap to a more productive and positive way of life, both at home and in the workplace. Shawn's teachings have inspired me to work on being a "positive genius". There has already been some very real differences in my family life. I'd recommend this book to everyone. It can only improve your life. Mr. Achor also has a wonderful sense of humor. If you aren't sure, just watch his TED Talks.

Honestly, for three bucks, I expected a small handful of cute ideas. Imagine my surprise, this is what might be called a Real Book, well researched and well written, worth carving out time to read and sad to finish. Thanks so much!

The stories combined with the science are what makes this book groundbreaking & transformational. If you want to go beyond Achor's first book, "Happiness Advantage" read this book now and go do it. Watch what happens!

I loved Shawn Achor's first book "The Happiness Advantage" and found "Before Happiness" even more valuable. His use of both research data and personal experiences help make the book extremely readable. From my own work, I know that attitude, beliefs, and perspectives are key to success (personal and professional) and Shawn outlines specific steps needed to create and maintain positive change. I highly recommend reading "Before Happiness."

Ed Nottingham, PhD, PCC
Clinical & Consulting Psychologist
Author, It's Not As Bad As It Seems

I had high expectations for the book, given the TED talk he gave. THe ideas are basically the same with lame advice on how to leverage.
It seems like the author didn't really progress for this book or spend the effort... too bad...

Essentially, we have two choices in life, live in a state of perpetual sadness, excusing our own circumstances as functions of our surroundings. The second choice, sadly the road less chosen, is happy, grateful for families, friends and proud of our accomplishments.

Happily, Mr. Achor has chosen to focus on the " happy" alternative and provided a road-map, from which we all may benefit.

It's been suggested, including among others, James Collins in his fine book Good To Great, that a core reason many POW's did not survive, might have been due to overoptimism. It should have been clear, that those who did survive, did so largely through realistic optimism. A point made very clearly, distinctly and actionable by Mr.Achor.

Similarly, a cancer patient has options, make final arrangements, or recognize the most realistic road to good health and follow the plan with laser focus.

Mr. Achor outlines a 5 step program that's easy to follow and fun.

1/establish the most positive reality, we all know there is more than one, pick the one that makes us happiest;
2/ create a map for success;
3/ find our success accelerants; this is the most helpful part of his strategy, find the smaller accomplishments, bring them closer to the present and energize ourselves toward long term achievement;
4/cancel the noise; the some big, some small things that continually, but falsely suggest or deter from our goals being met;
5/ share with others; what's more fun than being happy...making someone else just as happy.

I've lived a relatively long and productive life and yet continue to search for a small edge to make both mine and the lives of the people around me, better. I have fairly sizable library of "living better/self help" tomes and this is easily one of the better ones.

Highly Recommended...and Happier Living !

Shawn Achor is an outstanding educator and motivator on happiness. If you've missed him on TED, I recommend you find his famous talk and become acquainted with his winning personality, gifted in connecting with people's emotions.

Achor makes the case that happiness is a competitive advantage. The habits of thinking that conduce to happiness can also help one reach one's greatest potential.

As we all can observe, individuals in the same circumstances at a given moment can experience entirely different realities. Each person is interpreting, transforming objective realities into something unique to themselves.

Once one is aware of this, one can endeavor to transform one's habits of thinking in order to alter one's reality. In the doing, a person might well develop capacities that enable them to achieve greater things.

Achor urges the cultivation of what he calls "positive genius," whereby "you can summon all your cognitive, intellectual, and emotional resources to create positive change, because you believe that true change is possible."

Positive genius can be achieved in five steps:

--select the "most valuable reality"

--map your course to achieve your goals.

--use "success accelerants" [pulling together a range of productivity approaches]

--cancel the negative "noise"

--scale your efforts by involving others.

Readers will note that these are pretty straightforward and familiar. Effectiveness and happiness are universally sought so that should not be surprising.

For most readers, other than young people for whom the basic messages are new, the value of the book may come from thinking about old issues in new ways. Achor offers many anecdotes and research summaries. If any one rings true to a reader, it may well be worth far more than the price of the book.

Several the store.com reviewers express disappointment that the research underlying Achor's recommendations is not more robust. To be sure, Achor, like many other business authors today, attempts to gain credibility with readers by backing up his assertions with solid evidence, ideally through peer-reviewed or other authoritative work.

Nonetheless, quantitative analysis is not what drives Achor's points home. It's his capacity to express familiar things in ways that spur action by readers. To that extent, it may resemble diet books. The research is useful to a point, but the books' value largely lies in spurring readers into action along lines that are well-known to them.

'Before Happiness' can be useful, in ways large or small, to almost anyone.

My experience introduction to Shawn Achor was a snippet from his TEDTalk. I enjoyed what he'd said and the personality with which he said it--that's why I was interested in reading this title. But I must admit I've not read his previous book 'The Happiness Advantage'. Despite that there were still mainly valuable insights gleaned from this title.

While the book has a definite bent toward self-help, it's not too heavy on the rah! rah! sis-boom-bah! type of information dispensation. He breaks down each section, explains their goals with anecdotal references, and then provides action steps to help realize those goals. For instance, in the first section titled 'Reality Architecture: Choosing the Most Valuable Reality" he explains that there are multiple possible realities at any given time based on the perspective and vantage point from which a situation is viewed using a lesson he learned while piloting a nuclear submarine. He then explains how to train your brain to see things from the various perspectives and vantage points in order to choose the best possible reality for a given situation.

His writing style was much like his speaking style--easy to follow and digest with a hint of comical whimsy. Definitely not a dry read, however, there was plenty of repetition. A bit too much in my opinion. The other caveat is that this book tends toward lower-level workplace situations, although he does glance on how to apply the techniques to life and possibly some entrepreneurial pursuits. But when I say "glance", I mean *glance*. That said, if you're creative it wouldn't be too difficult to tweak and modify as a necessary.

Overall this is an inspiring read that's sparked me to get a copy of his prior book.

Interesting book on Happiness, though I think this book skews somewhat towards self-motivation and how to be successful in life kind of book.

The stories presented in this book is quick to the point but the explanation of how those relates to happiness is somewhat diluted.

Some interesting concepts such as the longer the task takes, the more challenges the brain perceives the task to be. Somewhat like Sun-Sze Art of War?: Acting swiftly when there is opportunity. Or perhaps our human mind just needs instant gratification?

I am uncertain if this is a self-help book or a management book but I suppose it is a positive book for anyone to read.

These are the 5 steps of Happiness and Success:

1) Choose the most valuable reality - How to see multiple realities and select the one that leads to positive growth.

2) Map your meaning markers - How to identify and chart the best route to accomplishing your goals.

3) Find the X-Spot - How to use success accelerants to propel you more quickly towards your goals.

4) Cancel the noise - How to boost the signal that points to greater opportunities, possibilities, and resources.

5) Create positive inception - How to amplify the effects of a positive mindset by transferring your positive reality to others.

Don't worry, Be happy! (Really, as the book mentions that there is a cost for worrying!) :)

The book, in the noise cancellation chapter, says reduce our information intake, namely the "news." I was so happy compared to anything I've felt in years. I actually went a week without news other than what I heard in the background in environments. Shawn Anchor is correct in that the news is so negative and affects us even while we try not to let it do anything to our minds.

This book seems to be a significant contribution to happiness literature. It basically turns upside-down the idea that we need to be more successful to be happy. The converse is brought to reason in the book. Success only makes us adjust our goals to something higher. We never "get there." That's a losers game. Instead we should first become positive about things and then we'll get better outcomes as a result. We're better at doing things when we reverse the formula.

It was great being away from the negativity of the news for a week. Since then I fell back into checking the news and feel worse. The news really is negative, so the book got at least that one right.

There are many different aspects of what people believe and do based on habits rather than reality presented in this book.
When you study the success rates it turns out a lot of what they presume is totally wrong.
One of my favorite parts of the book was where he talked about a study I already knew about that exposed Jim Cramer as a terrible advisor when it came to predicting stocks.
In 2008 Michael Zhaung did a study and found out that Cramer was WRONG 64.4% of the time.
Yep, .despite all his pompous predictions he was right only 35.6% of the time.
So if you had followed his advice you would have LOST money.
I googled Jim Cramer sucks and here in 2013 he is still giving bad advice. All those booyah morons that are still listening to him are still getting worse returns than if you merely flipped an even weighted rock like a coin. Yep, it's a scientific fact. When it comes to stock predictions Cramer is dumber than a rock.
But there are many more scientific studies in the book.
Like when coaches call a time out just before a guy kicks a field goal, It turns out no matter what the distance more field goals are made after a "freezing" time out call than if they were allowed to just try and make it. Yet coaches still call those stupid time outs.
I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

I read at least two business books per month. Most books address functional roles such as being a leader, manager, doer, or seller. Another angle to business, however, is how we manage ourselves and our minds. What I mean by that is how you manage your personality, reactions, and behaviors. This book is all about influencing positive change by managing the way your mind works; by getting out of ruts and making your mind more aware and open to new ways to process information. It goes way beyond the self-empowerment techniques of positive self-talk; rather it provides actual functional practices that will help you become more effective by getting out of mental and behavioral ruts. While the book, like a lot of business books these days, can be very wordy (do editors manadet a minimum bumber fo pages these days??), the author presents enough new and engaging ideas that keeps the reader going. Another good book is Blindppot, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, which addresses some of the same mind management (and self-awareness) issues as "Before Happiness", but from a different angle. These books do a great job of helping us actually implement the management and leadership principles presented in so many other books. A very worthwhile read that I highly recommend.

"Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change" by Shawn Achor is a fast, friendly, and easy read with some easy steps you can take to reorient your thinking patterns to bring positive change into your life, learn how to sustain a happier attitude, and spread the happiness around.

Achor has given us a book for change that doesn't involved buying all sorts of props and additional materials to make change happen. Nor are you required to re-read a paragraph 80 times before having a clue what the author is really suggesting you do. I found in simply reading the book through, before going back to implement the suggested steps, I was actually making some of those changes in my thought patterns without even trying.

Noise Canceling is the one skill I'm focusing on. And probably the one most people struggle with. All those self-doubting messages you've heard, and still hear, from outside sources that you have started feeding yourself.

A self-help book with practical steps anyone can realistically follow. I definitely need to read Archor's first book, "The Happiness Advantage."

Happiness is one thing the world will never have too much of!

I have been reading books on happiness for several years now. I was first attracted to the idea by "Learned Optimism". The idea of happiness being a created outcome was new to me at the time and a very interesting thing. So over the years I have read many repetitive books on achieving happiness.

This book is the most useful I have found. "Before Happiness" explains the foundation to happiness. It helps you learn and exercise the skills to build happiness and support it. Many books on happiness give great tips on how to be happy but they focus on a sustained effort. "Before Happiness" shows you how to build it in so that it becomes a natural consequence. I found that so useful.

I particularly appreciated the focus on spreading happiness. Achor gives specific advice that worked well for me. I was pleased that he was able to share something new and useful.

"Before Happiness" is well researched and shares a lot of interesting facts along with the advice. It makes for interesting reading.

This is one of my top 5 happiness books.

If this is your first Shawn Achor book, I recommend that you start with his previous volume - "The Happiness Advantage" in order to fully understand his 'happiness' concepts that are further elaborated upon with the 2013 release of 'Before Happiness.' On its own, 'Before Happiness' takes a more practical approach than the previous book by laying out action plans to utilize positive thinking methods to further enrich your personal and professional life but with this structure a bit of the warmth and personality that the previous book conveyed nicely is lost in the process. Still, a worthwhile read when paired together with "The Happiness Advantage."

The author here brings the whole idea of happiness down from the clouds and into the realm of day-to-day living. The means of doing so are the five keys to happiness. These five keys are adequately discussed in the other reviews. The question is just what makes this book so much more worth reading than the others on the same subject. It's the person to person conversational quality. Reading this book isn't like sitting in a lecture hall listening to an esteemed professor. It's much more of a friend-to-friend affair.

So will this book solve all your problems? Probably not. It's all in your hands and in your mind, not in the book's. It's possible to read this and just nod "Amen" and then go back to your old patterns. However, it's to be hoped that you will absorb the author's words and reach out from there into a more satisfactory and challenging life. It's up to you.

Needless to say, this book is highly recommended. Read it and make the techniques outlined in it your own.

I read the author's first book The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work and found it to be an excellent book and I highly recommend it. This second book by him does not disappoint. This book has the store's "Look Inside" feature and I highly recommend you take advantage of that to preview the text, look at the table of contents, etc.

What you find in this book is a lot of stuff that isn't typical of "happiness" books. That's because this book is about what comes before happiness, something the author calls positive genius. It's all about a positive view of reality - how to basically frame reality such that positive outcomes seem reachable. It is very well done.

An enjoyable and practical read. Highly recommended.

There are no quick formulaic responses to finding happiness. That being said, Shawn Achor does a fairly good job out outlying some basic concepts of how to find happiness is finding the ability to see the possibility for hope. This book also talks about the importance not just of that process within ourselves but also in being around others.

From my perspective this book does an okay job of laying out a path to self improvement. It is not the best nor is it the worst I've read. What I've come to realize in all the self help books I've read over the years is that finding the one that has the most "light bulb" moments for your style and your situation is what is important. This book definitely has that potential. Will it spark your lights maybe maybe not but either way it is a good read and a good framing of a way to create change. Either way you are still the one responsible for manifesting that change

In this book the author outlines five strategies to optimize success. Much like a farmer tilling the field, these ideas may help develop the optimal conditions to cultivate positive outcomes to goals. The strategies are fairly simple and not especially original. This is not to say that they are not effective. For instance the cancelling noise is probably one of the easiest to implement and remarkably helpful. We are barraged with noise and silence is cleansing and calming. Vision boards are commonplace but when prepared and used correctly they are powerful tool for focus and inspiration. The book is an easy read although editing out some of the author's many accomplishments would have helped the pace.

I don't know that there is any one size fits all success formula. This book provides insight and some practical ideas to help develop an atmosphere conducive to goal achievement. Recommended.

If you enjoyed The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, you'll LOVE Before Happiness. I've found several tips handy to help improve my overall outlook on several issues of concern as life throws me curve-balls. Some things I'm actively doing to further increase my overall feeling of satisfaction includes: Smiling more, actively seeking out quiet time free of senseless white noise, and developing a positive mental narrative. Before Happiness now sits prominently within reach of my desk so I can grab it for review when I'm particularly stressed. A great companion book is 14,000 Things to be Happy About.: Revised and Updated edition.