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　　现代社会最大的文化迷思我们不能改变。研究证明你可以变得更加乐观，但是如果你优先考虑眼前的幸福，你会收获额外的好处。

　　Some people think if you are happy, you are blind to reality.But when we research it, happiness actually raises every singlebusiness and educational outcome for the brain. How did we missthis? Why do we have these societal misconceptions about happiness?Because we assumed you were average。

　　When we study people, scientists are often interested in whatthe average is. If we study what is merely average, we will remainmerely average。

　　Many people think happiness is genetic. That's only half thestory, because the average person does not fight their genes. Whenwe stop studying the average and begin researching positiveoutliers -- people who are above average for a positive dimensionlike optimism or intelligence -- a wildly different pictureemerges. Our daily decisions and habits have a huge impact uponboth our levels of happiness and success。

　　Scientifically, happiness is a choice. It is a choice aboutwhere your single processor brain will devote its finite resourcesas you process the world. If you scan for the negative first, yourbrain literally has no resources left over to see the things youare grateful for or the meaning embedded in your work. But if youscan the world for the positive, you start to reap an amazingadvantage。

　　Now that there is research validity to these claims, the workingworld is starting to take notice. In January, I wrote the coverstory for the Harvard Business Review magazine on "Happiness Leadsto Profits." Based on my article called "Positive Intelligence" andmy research in The Happiness Advantage, I outlined our researchedconclusion: the single greatest advantage in the modern economy isa happy and engaged workforce。

　　A decade of research in the business world proves that happinessraises nearly every business and educational outcome: raising salesby 37%， productivity by 31%， and accuracy on tasks by 19%， as wellas a myriad of health and quality-of-life improvements。

　　Given the unprecedented level of unhappiness at companies andthe direct link between happiness and business outcomes, thequestion is NOT whether happiness should matter to companies. Giventhis research, it clearly should. The first question is: What can Ido in my own life to reap the advantage of happiness?

　　Training your brain to be positive at work is just like trainingyour muscles at the gym. Sounds simple, right? Well, think abouthow easy it is to make yourself go to the gym. The key with any newresolution is to make it a habit. New research on neuroplasticity-- the ability of the brain to change even as an adult -- revealsthat moderate actions can rewire the brain as you create "lifehabits."

　　In The Happiness Advantage, I challenge readers to do one briefpositive exercise every day for 21 days. Only through behavioralchange can information become transformation。

　　• Write down three new things you are grateful for each day;

　　• Write for two minutes a day describing one positive experienceyou had over the past 24 hours;

　　• Exercise for 10 minutes a day;

　　• Meditate for two minutes, focusing on your breath going in andout;

　　• Write one quick email first thing in the morning thanking orpraising someone in your social support network (family member,friend, old teacher)。

　　But does it work? In the midst of the worst tax season inhistory I did a three-hour intervention at auditing and taxaccounting firm KPMG, describing how to reap the happinessadvantage by creating one of these positive habits. Four monthslater, there was a 24% improvement in job and life satisfaction.Not only is change possible, this is one of the first long-term ROI(return on investment) studies proving that happiness leads tolong-term quantifiable positive change。

　　In a study I performed on 1,600 Harvard students in 2007, Ifound that there was a 0.7 correlation between perceived socialsupport and happiness. This is higher than the connection betweensmoking and cancer. So if in the modern world we give up our socialnetworks to work away from friends and follow celebrities onTwitter, we are trading off with our happiness and health。

　　Following up, I switched around the questions and asked how muchsocial support employees provided (instead of received). Theresults were off the charts. Those high on provision of socialsupport are 10 times more engaged at work and have a 40% higherlikelihood of promotion over the next four years. In other words,giving at the office gets you more than receiving。

　　The greatest cultural myth in modern society is that we cannotchange. My research proves that you can not only become morepositive, but if you prioritize happiness in the present, you canreap an extraordinary advantage。