Quotes from Shawn Achor

To be truly engaged at work, your brain needs periodic breaks to gain fresh perspective and energy.

What we've been finding is people are afraid of happiness. They're afraid of happiness because they think we'll stagnate or we'll be blind: that if I'm happy now, I won't keep fighting as hard. If I'm happy now, I won't push as hard to make a better world. That's what pleasure does. Joy does the exact opposite.

You spend money on Internet connection for your employees. Why not spend money on the energy that fuels their brains?

One of the most powerful forces in human nature is our belief that change is possible.

Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed.

The greatest competitive advantage in our modern economy is a positive and engaged brain.

Happiness is such an incredible advantage in our life. When the human brain is positive, our intelligence rises, we stop diverting resources to think about anxiety.

Happiness is a mindset for your journey, not the result of your destination.

Happiness is not the belief that we don't need to change; it's the realization that we can.

Study after study shows that happiness precedes important outcomes and indicators of thriving.

Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential.

Happiness is actually an individual choice, even in the midst of negative circumstances. It's not something our employers can give to us, though they can limit and influence that choice.

Happiness inspires productivity.

Scientifically, happiness is a choice. It is a choice about where your single processor brain will devote its finite resources as you process the world.

As Harvard Business School professor Peter Bregman advises, 'Don't write a book, write a page...Don't expect to be a great manager in your first six months, just try to set expectations well.

The absence of disease is not health.

You can study gravity forever without learning how to fly.

Joy is something you can experience even when life is not pleasurable. Even in the midst of a long run, when your legs are burning, you can still feel joy.

The greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy is a positive and engaged brain.

The more we can lower or even eliminate the activation energy for our desired actions, the more we enhance our ability to jump-start positive change.

When a manager openly expresses his faith in an employee's skill, he doesn't just improve mood and motivation; he actually improves their likelihood of succeeding.

The decision to use recognition as an on-the-spot bonus instead of merely pay increases is a fascinating one, because pay increases can create new mental anchors for how much the person feels happy earning, whereas the social recognition program is ongoing, unexpected, and harder to form a mental anchor around.

The idea of investing in the positivity of employees is often low down on companies' priority lists.

Positive and engaged brains are a company's greatest assets. More than time and even more than productivity, people must be happy.