0:00:00.000,0:00:03.000 When I was seven years old and my sister was just five years old, 0:00:03.000,0:00:06.000 we were playing on top of a bunk bed. 0:00:06.000,0:00:08.000 I was two years older than my sister at the time -- 0:00:08.000,0:00:11.000 I mean, I'm two years older than her now -- 0:00:11.000,0:00:14.000 but at the time it meant she had to do everything that I wanted to do, 0:00:14.000,0:00:16.000 and I wanted to play war. 0:00:16.000,0:00:18.000 So we were up on top of our bunk beds. 0:00:18.000,0:00:20.000 And on one side of the bunk bed, 0:00:20.000,0:00:22.000 I had put out all of my G.I. Joe soldiers and weaponry. 0:00:22.000,0:00:25.000 And on the other side were all my sister's My Little Ponies 0:00:25.000,0:00:27.000 ready for a cavalry charge. 0:00:27.000,0:00:29.000 There are differing accounts of what actually happened that afternoon, 0:00:29.000,0:00:32.000 but since my sister is not here with us today, 0:00:32.000,0:00:34.000 let me tell you the true story -- 0:00:34.000,0:00:36.000 (Laughter) -- 0:00:36.000,0:00:38.000 which is my sister's a little bit on the clumsy side. 0:00:38.000,0:00:41.000 Somehow, without any help or push from her older brother at all, 0:00:41.000,0:00:43.000 suddenly Amy disappeared off of the top of the bunk bed 0:00:43.000,0:00:45.000 and landed with this crash on the floor. 0:00:45.000,0:00:47.000 Now I nervously peered over the side of the bed 0:00:47.000,0:00:50.000 to see what had befallen my fallen sister 0:00:50.000,0:00:52.000 and saw that she had landed painfully on her hands and knees 0:00:52.000,0:00:54.000 on all fours on the ground. 0:00:54.000,0:00:56.000 I was nervous because my parents had charged me 0:00:56.000,0:00:58.000 with making sure that my sister and I 0:00:58.000,0:01:01.000 played as safely and as quietly as possible. 0:01:01.000,0:01:04.000 And seeing as how I had accidentally broken Amy's arm 0:01:04.000,0:01:06.000 just one week before ... 0:01:06.000,0:01:10.000 (Laughter) 0:01:10.000,0:01:12.000 ... heroically pushing her out of the way 0:01:12.000,0:01:15.000 of an oncoming imaginary sniper bullet, 0:01:15.000,0:01:17.000 (Laughter) 0:01:17.000,0:01:19.000 for which I have yet to be thanked, 0:01:19.000,0:01:21.000 I was trying as hard as I could -- 0:01:21.000,0:01:23.000 she didn't even see it coming -- 0:01:23.000,0:01:25.000 I was trying as hard as I could to be on my best behavior. 0:01:25.000,0:01:27.000 And I saw my sister's face, 0:01:27.000,0:01:29.000 this wail of pain and suffering and surprise 0:01:29.000,0:01:31.000 threatening to erupt from her mouth and threatening to wake 0:01:31.000,0:01:34.000 my parents from the long winter's nap for which they had settled. 0:01:34.000,0:01:36.000 So I did the only thing 0:01:36.000,0:01:39.000 my little frantic seven year-old brain could think to do to avert this tragedy. 0:01:39.000,0:01:41.000 And if you have children, you've seen this hundreds of times before. 0:01:41.000,0:01:43.000 I said, "Amy, Amy, wait. Don't cry. Don't cry. 0:01:43.000,0:01:45.000 Did you see how you landed? 0:01:45.000,0:01:48.000 No human lands on all fours like that. 0:01:48.000,0:01:51.000 Amy, I think this means you're a unicorn." 0:01:51.000,0:01:54.000 (Laughter) 0:01:54.000,0:01:57.000 Now that was cheating, because there was nothing in the world my sister would want more 0:01:57.000,0:01:59.000 than not to be Amy the hurt five year-old little sister, 0:01:59.000,0:02:01.000 but Amy the special unicorn. 0:02:01.000,0:02:04.000 Of course, this was an option that was open to her brain at no point in the past. 0:02:04.000,0:02:07.000 And you could see how my poor, manipulated sister faced conflict, 0:02:07.000,0:02:09.000 as her little brain attempted to devote resources 0:02:09.000,0:02:11.000 to feeling the pain and suffering and surprise 0:02:11.000,0:02:13.000 she just experienced, 0:02:13.000,0:02:15.000 or contemplating her new-found identity as a unicorn. 0:02:15.000,0:02:17.000 And the latter won out. 0:02:17.000,0:02:19.000 Instead of crying, instead of ceasing our play, 0:02:19.000,0:02:21.000 instead of waking my parents, 0:02:21.000,0:02:23.000 with all the negative consequences that would have ensued for me, 0:02:23.000,0:02:25.000 instead a smile spread across her face 0:02:25.000,0:02:28.000 and she scrambled right back up onto the bunk bed with all the grace of a baby unicorn ... 0:02:28.000,0:02:30.000 (Laughter) 0:02:30.000,0:02:32.000 ... with one broken leg. 0:02:32.000,0:02:34.000 What we stumbled across 0:02:34.000,0:02:36.000 at this tender age of just five and seven -- 0:02:36.000,0:02:38.000 we had no idea at the time -- 0:02:38.000,0:02:41.000 was something that was going be at the vanguard of a scientific revolution 0:02:41.000,0:02:44.000 occurring two decades later in the way that we look at the human brain. 0:02:44.000,0:02:47.000 What we had stumbled across is something called positive psychology, 0:02:47.000,0:02:49.000 which is the reason that I'm here today 0:02:49.000,0:02:51.000 and the reason that I wake up every morning. 0:02:51.000,0:02:53.000 When I first started talking about this research 0:02:53.000,0:02:55.000 outside of academia, out with companies and schools, 0:02:55.000,0:02:57.000 the very first thing they said to never do 0:02:57.000,0:02:59.000 is to start your talk with a graph. 0:02:59.000,0:03:01.000 The very first thing I want to do is start my talk with a graph. 0:03:01.000,0:03:03.000 This graph looks boring, 0:03:03.000,0:03:05.000 but this graph is the reason I get excited and wake up every morning. 0:03:05.000,0:03:07.000 And this graph doesn't even mean anything; it's fake data. 0:03:07.000,0:03:09.000 What we found is -- 0:03:09.000,0:03:13.000 (Laughter) 0:03:13.000,0:03:16.000 If I got this data back studying you here in the room, I would be thrilled, 0:03:16.000,0:03:18.000 because there's very clearly a trend that's going on there, 0:03:18.000,0:03:20.000 and that means that I can get published, 0:03:20.000,0:03:22.000 which is all that really matters. 0:03:22.000,0:03:24.000 The fact that there's one weird red dot that's up above the curve, 0:03:24.000,0:03:26.000 there's one weirdo in the room -- 0:03:26.000,0:03:29.000 I know who you are, I saw you earlier -- 0:03:29.000,0:03:31.000 that's no problem. 0:03:31.000,0:03:33.000 That's no problem, as most of you know, 0:03:33.000,0:03:35.000 because I can just delete that dot. 0:03:35.000,0:03:37.000 I can delete that dot because that's clearly a measurement error. 0:03:37.000,0:03:39.000 And we know that's a measurement error 0:03:39.000,0:03:42.000 because it's messing up my data. 0:03:42.000,0:03:44.000 So one of the very first things we teach people 0:03:44.000,0:03:47.000 in economics and statistics and business and psychology courses 0:03:47.000,0:03:50.000 is how, in a statistically valid way, do we eliminate the weirdos. 0:03:50.000,0:03:52.000 How do we eliminate the outliers 0:03:52.000,0:03:54.000 so we can find the line of best fit? 0:03:54.000,0:03:56.000 Which is fantastic if I'm trying to find out 0:03:56.000,0:03:59.000 how many Advil the average person should be taking -- two. 0:03:59.000,0:04:01.000 But if I'm interested in potential, if I'm interested in your potential, 0:04:01.000,0:04:03.000 or for happiness or productivity 0:04:03.000,0:04:05.000 or energy or creativity, 0:04:05.000,0:04:07.000 what we're doing is we're creating the cult of the average with science. 0:04:07.000,0:04:09.000 If I asked a question like, 0:04:09.000,0:04:11.000 "How fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom?" 0:04:11.000,0:04:13.000 scientists change the answer to "How fast does the average child 0:04:13.000,0:04:15.000 learn how to read in that classroom?" 0:04:15.000,0:04:17.000 and then we tailor the class right towards the average. 0:04:17.000,0:04:19.000 Now if you fall below the average on this curve, 0:04:19.000,0:04:21.000 then psychologists get thrilled, 0:04:21.000,0:04:24.000 because that means you're either depressed or you have a disorder, 0:04:24.000,0:04:26.000 or hopefully both. 0:04:26.000,0:04:28.000 We're hoping for both because our business model is, 0:04:28.000,0:04:30.000 if you come into a therapy session with one problem, 0:04:30.000,0:04:32.000 we want to make sure you leave knowing you have 10, 0:04:32.000,0:04:34.000 so you keep coming back over and over again. 0:04:34.000,0:04:36.000 We'll go back into your childhood if necessary, 0:04:36.000,0:04:38.000 but eventually what we want to do is make you normal again. 0:04:38.000,0:04:40.000 But normal is merely average. 0:04:40.000,0:04:42.000 And what I posit and what positive psychology posits 0:04:42.000,0:04:44.000 is that if we study what is merely average, 0:04:44.000,0:04:46.000 we will remain merely average. 0:04:46.000,0:04:48.000 Then instead of deleting those positive outliers, 0:04:48.000,0:04:50.000 what I intentionally do is come into a population like this one 0:04:50.000,0:04:52.000 and say, why? 0:04:52.000,0:04:54.000 Why is it that some of you are so high above the curve 0:04:54.000,0:04:56.000 in terms of your intellectual ability, athletic ability, musical ability, 0:04:56.000,0:04:58.000 creativity, energy levels, 0:04:58.000,0:05:00.000 your resiliency in the face of challenge, your sense of humor? 0:05:00.000,0:05:03.000 Whatever it is, instead of deleting you, what I want to do is study you. 0:05:03.000,0:05:05.000 Because maybe we can glean information -- 0:05:05.000,0:05:07.000 not just how to move people up to the average, 0:05:07.000,0:05:10.000 but how we can move the entire average up 0:05:10.000,0:05:12.000 in our companies and schools worldwide. 0:05:12.000,0:05:14.000 The reason this graph is important to me 0:05:14.000,0:05:16.000 is, when I turn on the news, it seems like the majority of the information 0:05:16.000,0:05:18.000 is not positive, in fact it's negative. 0:05:18.000,0:05:21.000 Most of it's about murder, corruption, diseases, natural disasters. 0:05:21.000,0:05:23.000 And very quickly, my brain starts to think 0:05:23.000,0:05:25.000 that's the accurate ratio of negative to positive in the world. 0:05:25.000,0:05:27.000 What that's doing is creating something 0:05:27.000,0:05:29.000 called the medical school syndrome -- 0:05:29.000,0:05:31.000 which, if you know people who've been to medical school, 0:05:31.000,0:05:33.000 during the first year of medical training, 0:05:33.000,0:05:35.000 as you read through a list of all the symptoms and diseases that could happen, 0:05:35.000,0:05:37.000 suddenly you realize you have all of them. 0:05:37.000,0:05:40.000 I have a brother in-law named Bobo -- which is a whole other story. 0:05:40.000,0:05:43.000 Bobo married Amy the unicorn. 0:05:43.000,0:05:46.000 Bobo called me on the phone 0:05:46.000,0:05:49.000 from Yale Medical School, 0:05:49.000,0:05:51.000 and Bobo said, "Shawn, I have leprosy." 0:05:51.000,0:05:53.000 (Laughter) 0:05:53.000,0:05:55.000 Which, even at Yale, is extraordinarily rare. 0:05:55.000,0:05:58.000 But I had no idea how to console poor Bobo 0:05:58.000,0:06:00.000 because he had just gotten over an entire week of menopause. 0:06:00.000,0:06:02.000 (Laughter) 0:06:02.000,0:06:05.000 See what we're finding is it's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, 0:06:05.000,0:06:08.000 but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. 0:06:08.000,0:06:11.000 And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, 0:06:11.000,0:06:14.000 we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time. 0:06:14.000,0:06:16.000 When I applied to Harvard, I applied on a dare. 0:06:16.000,0:06:19.000 I didn't expect to get in, and my family had no money for college. 0:06:19.000,0:06:21.000 When I got a military scholarship two weeks later, they allowed me to go. 0:06:21.000,0:06:24.000 Suddenly, something that wasn't even a possibility became a reality. 0:06:24.000,0:06:27.000 When I went there, I assumed everyone else would see it as a privilege as well, 0:06:27.000,0:06:29.000 that they'd be excited to be there. 0:06:29.000,0:06:31.000 Even if you're in a classroom full of people smarter than you, 0:06:31.000,0:06:33.000 you'd be happy just to be in that classroom, which is what I felt. 0:06:33.000,0:06:35.000 But what I found there 0:06:35.000,0:06:37.000 is, while some people experience that, 0:06:37.000,0:06:39.000 when I graduated after my four years 0:06:39.000,0:06:41.000 and then spent the next eight years living in the dorms with the students -- 0:06:41.000,0:06:44.000 Harvard asked me to; I wasn't that guy. 0:06:44.000,0:06:48.000 (Laughter) 0:06:48.000,0:06:51.000 I was an officer of Harvard to counsel students through the difficult four years. 0:06:51.000,0:06:53.000 And what I found in my research and my teaching 0:06:53.000,0:06:55.000 is that these students, no matter how happy they were 0:06:55.000,0:06:58.000 with their original success of getting into the school, 0:06:58.000,0:07:01.000 two weeks later their brains were focused, not on the privilege of being there, 0:07:01.000,0:07:03.000 nor on their philosophy or their physics. 0:07:03.000,0:07:05.000 Their brain was focused on the competition, the workload, 0:07:05.000,0:07:07.000 the hassles, the stresses, the complaints. 0:07:07.000,0:07:09.000 When I first went in there, I walked into the freshmen dining hall, 0:07:09.000,0:07:12.000 which is where my friends from Waco, Texas, which is where I grew up -- 0:07:12.000,0:07:14.000 I know some of you have heard of it. 0:07:14.000,0:07:16.000 When they'd come to visit me, they'd look around, 0:07:16.000,0:07:18.000 they'd say, "This freshman dining hall looks like something 0:07:18.000,0:07:20.000 out of Hogwart's from the movie "Harry Potter," which it does. 0:07:20.000,0:07:22.000 This is Hogwart's from the movie "Harry Potter" and that's Harvard. 0:07:22.000,0:07:24.000 And when they see this, 0:07:24.000,0:07:26.000 they say, "Shawn, why do you waste your time studying happiness at Harvard? 0:07:26.000,0:07:28.000 Seriously, what does a Harvard student possibly have 0:07:28.000,0:07:30.000 to be unhappy about?" 0:07:30.000,0:07:32.000 Embedded within that question 0:07:32.000,0:07:34.000 is the key to understanding the science of happiness. 0:07:34.000,0:07:36.000 Because what that question assumes 0:07:36.000,0:07:39.000 is that our external world is predictive of our happiness levels, 0:07:39.000,0:07:41.000 when in reality, if I know everything about your external world, 0:07:41.000,0:07:44.000 I can only predict 10 percent of your long-term happiness. 0:07:44.000,0:07:46.000 90 percent of your long-term happiness 0:07:46.000,0:07:48.000 is predicted not by the external world, 0:07:48.000,0:07:50.000 but by the way your brain processes the world. 0:07:50.000,0:07:52.000 And if we change it, 0:07:52.000,0:07:54.000 if we change our formula for happiness and success, 0:07:54.000,0:07:56.000 what we can do is change the way 0:07:56.000,0:07:58.000 that we can then affect reality. 0:07:58.000,0:08:00.000 What we found is that only 25 percent of job successes 0:08:00.000,0:08:02.000 are predicted by I.Q. 0:08:02.000,0:08:04.000 75 percent of job successes 0:08:04.000,0:08:07.000 are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support 0:08:07.000,0:08:10.000 and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat. 0:08:10.000,0:08:13.000 I talked to a boarding school up in New England, probably the most prestigious boarding school, 0:08:13.000,0:08:15.000 and they said, "We already know that. 0:08:15.000,0:08:18.000 So every year, instead of just teaching our students, we also have a wellness week. 0:08:18.000,0:08:21.000 And we're so excited. Monday night we have the world's leading expert 0:08:21.000,0:08:23.000 coming in to speak about adolescent depression. 0:08:23.000,0:08:25.000 Tuesday night it's school violence and bullying. 0:08:25.000,0:08:27.000 Wednesday night is eating disorders. 0:08:27.000,0:08:29.000 Thursday night is elicit drug use. 0:08:29.000,0:08:32.000 And Friday night we're trying to decide between risky sex or happiness." 0:08:32.000,0:08:35.000 (Laughter) 0:08:35.000,0:08:37.000 I said, "That's most people's Friday nights." 0:08:37.000,0:08:40.000 (Laughter) 0:08:40.000,0:08:43.000 (Applause) 0:08:43.000,0:08:45.000 Which I'm glad you liked, but they did not like that at all. 0:08:45.000,0:08:47.000 Silence on the phone. 0:08:47.000,0:08:49.000 And into the silence, I said, "I'd be happy to speak at your school, 0:08:49.000,0:08:52.000 but just so you know, that's not a wellness week, that's a sickness week. 0:08:52.000,0:08:54.000 What you've done is you've outlined all the negative things that can happen, 0:08:54.000,0:08:56.000 but not talked about the positive." 0:08:56.000,0:08:58.000 The absence of disease is not health. 0:08:58.000,0:09:00.000 Here's how we get to health: 0:09:00.000,0:09:03.000 We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success. 0:09:03.000,0:09:05.000 In the last three years, I've traveled to 45 different countries, 0:09:05.000,0:09:07.000 working with schools and companies 0:09:07.000,0:09:09.000 in the midst of an economic downturn. 0:09:09.000,0:09:11.000 And what I found is that most companies and schools 0:09:11.000,0:09:13.000 follow a formula for success, which is this: 0:09:13.000,0:09:15.000 If I work harder, I'll be more successful. 0:09:15.000,0:09:18.000 And if I'm more successful, then I'll be happier. 0:09:18.000,0:09:20.000 That undergirds most of our parenting styles, our managing styles, 0:09:20.000,0:09:22.000 the way that we motivate our behavior. 0:09:22.000,0:09:25.000 And the problem is it's scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons. 0:09:25.000,0:09:28.000 First, every time your brain has a success, 0:09:28.000,0:09:30.000 you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like. 0:09:30.000,0:09:32.000 You got good grades, now you have to get better grades, 0:09:32.000,0:09:34.000 you got into a good school and after you get into a better school, 0:09:34.000,0:09:36.000 you got a good job, now you have to get a better job, 0:09:36.000,0:09:38.000 you hit your sales target, we're going to change your sales target. 0:09:38.000,0:09:41.000 And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there. 0:09:41.000,0:09:43.000 What we've done is we've pushed happiness 0:09:43.000,0:09:46.000 over the cognitive horizon as a society. 0:09:46.000,0:09:48.000 And that's because we think we have to be successful, 0:09:48.000,0:09:50.000 then we'll be happier. 0:09:50.000,0:09:52.000 But the real problem is our brains work in the opposite order. 0:09:52.000,0:09:55.000 If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, 0:09:55.000,0:09:58.000 then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, 0:09:58.000,0:10:00.000 which is your brain at positive 0:10:00.000,0:10:02.000 performs significantly better 0:10:02.000,0:10:04.000 than it does at negative, neutral or stressed. 0:10:04.000,0:10:07.000 Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. 0:10:07.000,0:10:09.000 In fact, what we've found 0:10:09.000,0:10:11.000 is that every single business outcome improves. 0:10:11.000,0:10:13.000 Your brain at positive is 31 percent more productive 0:10:13.000,0:10:16.000 than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. 0:10:16.000,0:10:18.000 You're 37 percent better at sales. 0:10:18.000,0:10:20.000 Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate 0:10:20.000,0:10:22.000 at coming up with the correct diagnosis 0:10:22.000,0:10:24.000 when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed. 0:10:24.000,0:10:26.000 Which means we can reverse the formula. 0:10:26.000,0:10:29.000 If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, 0:10:29.000,0:10:31.000 then our brains work even more successfully 0:10:31.000,0:10:34.000 as we're able to work harder, faster and more intelligently. 0:10:34.000,0:10:37.000 What we need to be able to do is to reverse this formula 0:10:37.000,0:10:39.000 so we can start to see what our brains are actually capable of. 0:10:39.000,0:10:41.000 Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you're positive, 0:10:41.000,0:10:43.000 has two functions. 0:10:43.000,0:10:45.000 Not only does it make you happier, 0:10:45.000,0:10:47.000 it turns on all of the learning centers in your brain 0:10:47.000,0:10:50.000 allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way. 0:10:50.000,0:10:52.000 We've found that there are ways that you can train your brain 0:10:52.000,0:10:54.000 to be able to become more positive. 0:10:54.000,0:10:57.000 In just a two-minute span of time done for 21 days in a row, 0:10:57.000,0:10:59.000 we can actually rewire your brain, 0:10:59.000,0:11:01.000 allowing your brain to actually work 0:11:01.000,0:11:03.000 more optimistically and more successfully. 0:11:03.000,0:11:05.000 We've done these things in research now 0:11:05.000,0:11:07.000 in every single company that I've worked with, 0:11:07.000,0:11:09.000 getting them to write down three new things that they're grateful for 0:11:09.000,0:11:11.000 for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. 0:11:11.000,0:11:13.000 And at the end of that, 0:11:13.000,0:11:15.000 their brain starts to retain a pattern 0:11:15.000,0:11:18.000 of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first. 0:11:18.000,0:11:20.000 Journaling about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours 0:11:20.000,0:11:22.000 allows your brain to relive it. 0:11:22.000,0:11:25.000 Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. 0:11:25.000,0:11:27.000 We find that meditation allows your brain 0:11:27.000,0:11:30.000 to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been creating 0:11:30.000,0:11:32.000 by trying to do multiple tasks at once 0:11:32.000,0:11:35.000 and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand. 0:11:35.000,0:11:37.000 And finally, random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness. 0:11:37.000,0:11:39.000 We get people, when they open up their inbox, 0:11:39.000,0:11:41.000 to write one positive email 0:11:41.000,0:11:43.000 praising or thanking somebody in their social support network. 0:11:43.000,0:11:45.000 And by doing these activities 0:11:45.000,0:11:47.000 and by training your brain just like we train our bodies, 0:11:47.000,0:11:50.000 what we've found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, 0:11:50.000,0:11:53.000 and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, 0:11:53.000,0:11:55.000 but create a real revolution. 0:11:55.000,0:11:57.000 Thank you very much. 0:11:57.000,0:12:00.000 (Applause)