The Power of Positive Thinking

I recently worked with someone who, no matter what happened, would alway see the worst in things. He would have just finished making a big sale, and then complain to his coworkers that he could have added that one more item.

I, as his manager, just brushed it off, thinking that he was just driving himself to be better. I even, at times, thought of it as a good thing because he always wanted to do more.

Many of us have worked with someone like this at some point in our lives. What I didn’t notice then is that he was stifling how much he could do by always focusing on the negative. And that wasn’t only affecting him, but it was also affecting my entire team.

Research on Positivity Increasing Productivity.

Happy people make better workers than unhappy people.

When you think positive thoughts and smile, your brain releases endorphins, giving you an energy boost. More energy means you are more motivated to get work done instead of dragging your way through the day.

Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of Happiness at Work, said:

“People who are happiest at work have 180% more energy than their least happy colleagues.”

Positive thinking can not only reduce your stress at work, but it can also change the way you view stress, which has far-reaching effects on your life. One study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, published in the journal Health Psychology, found that 182,000 people may have died prematurely because they believed their stress was bad for their health. The way you perceive your stress can kill you.

How a Workplace Can Increase Employee’s Happiness.

A big part of being happy at your job comes down to the kind of environment you are working in and the benefits you get from your job. There is a reason you see tech companies creating open floor plans and more activities for their employees to do in the office. It’s because an employee who feels comfortable at work is a better employee.

Allowing your employees to take short breaks throughout the day increases their productivity. A study from Baylor University found that office workers who take short, frequent breaks during the workday report higher job satisfaction, reduced emotional exhaustion, and show greater efforts to take on their job responsibilities.

This is no secret to tech companies. Google is famous for their “20% rule” which dictates that their employees use 20% of their week to work on what they think will most benefit Google. While this rule isn’t completely enforced across all teams, such products as Gmail, Google News, and even AdSense came from this initiative.

How You Can Increase Your Happiness At Work.

The responsibility doesn’t completely rely on your managers. It is also up to you as an employee to keep positive and stay motivated.

The idea of ‘fake it until you make it’ is a very real thing when it comes to positive thinking. If you spend just 5 minutes of your day writing out your positive thoughts, you will see a massive change in your attitude.

And the opposite is also the same. In a study by Barbara Fredrickson, a positive psychology researcher at the University of North Carolina, she found that having negative thoughts and emotions could actually narrow your mind and perspective. By creating and then repeating these negative thoughts, you limit your options to only those negative pathways you have developed over time.

We can’t always control the outside factors that are going to get us down, whether that is a stressful job or a negative teammate. But we can always control our attitude. And if health, productivity, and general happiness aren’t enough to get you to start looking on the brighter side of life, I don’t know what will be.