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Happiness:Your Competitive Advantage

Searching for something to help your business realize its full potential? Curious why companies like Capital One, General Electric and Apple are attracting top talent—and winning big? Ready to unlock success, professionally and personally?

The answer is a simple nine-letter word: happiness. Read on, and find out why.

1Happier people are more likely to see financial success and increased performance. After reviewing some 300 studies involving more than a quarter of a million people, psychologists Ed Diener, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Laura King concluded that happy people tend to:

• achieve higher incomes and more financial and professional success

• perform better at work

Happiness leads to innovation.Happy employees are more likely to be productive and come up with new ideas, a New York Times study found.

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A positive culture benefits the bottom line.When Prudential introduced positive organizational principles to its staff, the company was going through a tough transition, and executives feared they could lose 50 percent of their customers. Instead, they retained 95 percent and increased bottom-line revenues by 5 percent.

Happy employees are a company’s best spokespeople.While only 1 percent of employees say they love their jobs, nearly all who do align with their company’s values, says Shane Lopez, a Gallup senior scientist.

Entrepreneurship fosters increased wellbeing.When 197,000 people were surveyed for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project’s 2013 Global Report, entrepreneurs rated their wellbeing higher than employees did. Of these entrepreneurs, those who owned well-established businesses ranked their wellbeing higher than those with startups did.

Unhappy employees cost employers $300 billion each year in lost productivity.Echoing this statistic from Gallup, a study at the U.K.’s University of Warwick showed that happy employees were 12 percent more productive than the average, while unhappy employees were 10 percent less productive.

Happiness is more than dollars and cents. Only 56 percent of The Wharton School’s business graduates surveyed were earning a profit through their businesses—yet, their happiness levels ranked higher than graduates in all other professions. Why? The entrepreneurs said it’s because they have work-life balance and control over their time.

Entrepreneurs are happier with their lives.Of the 2,000 entrepreneurs and employees polled by AXA Business Insurance, business owners rated their life satisfaction 50 percent higher than their employees rated theirs. And, according to Small Business Economics, when employees move into the boss’s chair and become entrepreneurs, they report seeing boosts in their happiness within the first two years.

WANT MORE HAPPINESS HOW-TO’S? Check out Live Happy magazine and livehappy.com for more tips and articles that will make your day—and your life—brighter.

2Establish routines. Being dependable builds trust and lets family members know what to expect from each other every day. Have family meals as often as possible. Share activities and traditions, allowing everyone to become involved, and creating a sense of togetherness.

At Live Happy, we’ve found that when it comes to your family’s wellbeing, the size, structure and even wealth don’t matter. Rather, it’s when you focus on strengthening relationships—inside and outside your home—that your family is strongest.

Check out these five tips for fostering a positive, resilient family:

1Nurture your relationships. Have positive and open lines of communication. Make sure everyone is being heard and is comfortable sharing within the unit. Showing affection and encouraging each other also increase that positive energy.

5 Ways to Build a Stronger Family

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Maintain expectations. Set clear, but fair, boundaries that everyone should follow. Have open discussions about sensitive and tough subjects. Set an example for younger family members to model.

Adapt to challenges. Schedules fill up and unexpected things happen, but it’s important to teach your family how to adapt to those changes and solve problems in a fair, democratic way.

Connect to your community. Communities thrive when people are connected and supported. Participate in programs in your community, teaching your family the benefit of helping others as well as adding meaning to your lives. Talk about the places in your community that are important to you and your family.

WANT MORE HAPPINESS HOW-TO’S? Check out Live Happy magazine and livehappy.com for more tips and articles that will make your day—and your life—brighter.

TABLE TALKThe next time your family sits down for dinner, try these conversation starters: 1. What qualities do we value the most about each other in this family? What qualities can we work on to make us even better? 2. What are some ways we can make sure that we make more time to spend together?

3. What challenges have we overcome that have made our family stronger?

4. What can we do as a family to make sure everyone feels connected and is contributing?

5. What are some ways we can contribute to our community to make it a better place for everyone?

Families who share common strengths are more satisfied, take better care of their health and are more actively engaged in their communities.

You Need a Nap

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5 Reasons WhyAt Live Happy, we believe one of the simplest, most effective gifts you can give yourself is a little daytime shut-eye—and research agrees.

Here’s why:

1British researchers found that taking a nap was more effective in helping study subjects feel alert and refreshed throughout the day than either caffeine or getting more nighttime sleep.

3Give your productivity a boost. Forget about “powering through it” to get your work done; napping is beneficial to your learning, motor skills and memory—all of which have a direct effect on your daily productivity and creativity.

Improve your mood, naturally. People who take naps regularly are more hormonally balanced and less vulnerable to the effects of stress.

Say sayonara to the dreaded “afternoon slump.”

NAPPING 101Make the most of your afternoon shut-eye with these tips: 1. LESS IS MORE. A 20- to 30-minute nap is actually more effective than longer ones, which can create a condition known as “sleep inertia,” or that post-nap grogginess that can be difficult to get rid of.2. FIND YOUR PERFECT NAPPING SPOT. Sure, a snooze in the sun sounds like a great idea, but one of the keys to a successful nap is falling asleep quickly. Our advice: Find a cool, dark, quiet spot for maximum napping success.3. SCHEDULE IT. If you’re nodding off at your desk (or worse—in your car), you’ve waited too long. Not only will you lose productivity while fighting off sleep, but, chances are, you’ll also be miserable. Your body will welcome a regularly scheduled nap, helping you fall asleep faster and wake up quicker.4. SCHEDULE THE STARBUCKS, TOO.  Since caffeine doesn’t hit your system immediately, some experts suggest drinking a caffeinated beverage right before your nap. Once the caffeine kicks in, you’ll wake up easily!5. LOSE THE GUILT! The truth is, a well-timed nap can not only make you more productive at work and at home, it will also make you more enjoyable to be around!

Considering pulling an all-nighter? Think about this: When you miss a night of sleep, you forget 59 percent of the positive words you hear and remember most of the neutral and negative ones, says Shawn Achor, a Live Happy columnist and best-selling author.

WANT MORE HAPPINESS HOW-TO’S? Check out Live Happy magazine and livehappy.com for more tips and articles that will make your day—and your life—brighter.

4Your spouse will thank you…and your co-workers…and your friends.

Napping helps us restore our emotional wellbeing and even out our moods, leading to more stable, calmer relationships at work and at home.

5It’s part of who we are.

When isolated from environments that allowed them to keep track of time, participants would naturally take a short nap about 12 hours into their day, scientific studies showed.