Start With Happiness to Find Success: LinkedIn Speaker Series with Neil Pasricha

How can I be happy?

It's a simple enough question, but one whose answer seems to evade so many. In fact, the quest for happiness has turned into a burgeoning industry full of books, coaches, and even full-time positions at the most progressive companies.

The research is also plentiful. People who are happier or have a positive mindset at work are 31% more productive, 40% more likely to get a promotion in the next 12 months, and three times more creative. And to top it off, happier people live longer.

'Sign me up!' we quickly proclaim. 'Let's get happy!'

However, despite our best intentions, people are still searching for happiness. Maybe it's because we've been thinking about how to achieve happiness all wrong.

This is why we invited New York Times best-selling author, Neil Pasricha, into the New York LinkedIn office. His book, The Happiness Equation, is renowned for step-by-step guidelines to help you live a happier life and we wanted to know just what his secrets are.

Pasricha, like many, was taught to believe that if you worked hard, you'd become successful and in turn, find happiness. But this traditional model may be at the root of why we're not finding happiness. Instead, he urges us to be happy first. Because when you're happier, you'll do great work, and in turn, find great success.

If you're thinking, 'That's great, Pasricha, but how do I find happiness in the first place?' Not to worry. In his LinkedIn Speaker Series talk, he outlines the 'The Five Big Super Studies'. These are five things that anyone can do to flip your brain around:

1. Three, 20-minute brisk nature walks a week

2. The 20-minute replay

3. Five conscious acts of kindness

4. Meditation

5. Five gratitudes

Watch his talk (or listen to the podcast) to learn more about how picking just one of these, and doing them for 20 minutes, 20 days in a row, may help you find happiness.