“The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor
Principle 5- The Zorro Circle.
“Feeling that we are in control, that we are masters of our own fate at work and at home, is one of the strongest drivers of both well-being and performance. Among students, greater feelings of control lead not only to higher levels of happiness, but also to higher grades and more motivation to pursue the careers they really want. Similarly, employees who feel they have high levels of control at the office are better at their jobs and report more job satisfaction.” (p. 130)
“On the other hand, someone with an internal locus will look for what he or she might have done better, and then work to improve in that area. People with an external locus don’t just duck the blame for failure, though; they also miss out on the credit for their successes, which can be equally maladaptive because it undermines both confidence and dedication.” (p. 131)
“In one incredible study, researchers found that when they gave a group of nursing home residents more control over simple tasks in their daily lives—like putting them in charge of their own house plants—not only did their levels of happiness improve, but their mortality rate actually dropped in half. It’s hard to find a circle of control smaller than caring for a house plant, and yet feeling mastery over even that tiny task actually extended their lives.” (p. 132)
“Most of our daily challenges are better served by the Thinker, but unfortunately, when we’re feeling stressed or out of control, the Jerk tends to take over. This isn’t something that happens consciously. Instead, it’s biological. When we’re under pressure, the body starts to build up too much cortisol, the toxic chemical associated with stress. Once the stress has reached a critical point, even the smallest setback can trigger an amygdala response, essentially hitting the brain’s panic button. When that happens, the Jerk overpowers the Thinker’s defenses, spurring us into action without conscious thought. Instead of “think, then react,” the Jerk responds with “fight or flight.” We have become victims of what scientists call “emotional hijacking.” (p. 133)
“When he compared the patterns, he found that in the resilient individuals, the prefrontal cortex rapidly won over the limbic system; in other words, the Thinker took over almost immediately from the Jerk. The easily troubled group, on the other hand, exhibited a continuous rise in amygdala activity, which meant that the Jerk had hijacked the Thinker, overwhelming the brain’s reasoning and coping capabilities, and making the distress much worse.” (p. 134)
“When small stresses pile up over time, as they so often do in the workplace, it only takes a minor annoyance or irritation to lose control; in other words, to let the Jerk into the driver’s seat. When this hijacking occurs, we might lash out at a colleague or start to feel helpless and overwhelmed or suddenly lose all energy and motivation. As a result, our decision-making skills, productivity, and effectiveness plummet. This can have real consequences not just for individuals, but for entire teams of organizations. At one large company, researchers found that managers who felt the most swamped by job pressure ran teams with the worst performance and the lowest net profits.” (p. 134)
“So how do we reclaim control from the Jerk and put it back into the hands of the Thinker? The answer is the Zorro Circle. The first goal we need to conquer—or circle we need to draw—is self-awareness. Experiments show that when people are primed to feel high levels of distress, the quickest to recover are those who can identify how they are feeling and put those feelings into words. Brain scans show verbal information almost immediately diminishes the power of these negative emotions, improving well-being and enhancing decision-making skills.13 So whether you do it by writing down feelings in a journal or talking to a trusted coworker or confidant, verbalizing the stress and helplessness you are feeling is the first step toward regaining control.” (p. 136)
“Once you’ve mastered the self-awareness circle, your next goal should be to identify which aspects of the situation you have control over and which you don’t.” (p. 137)
“Once my trainees are armed with a list of what is indeed still within their control, I have them identify one small goal they know they can quickly accomplish. By narrowing their scope of action, and focusing their energy and efforts, the likelihood of success increases.” (p. 137)
“By tackling one small challenge at a time—a narrow circle that slowly expands outward—we can relearn that our actions do have a direct effect on our outcomes, that we are largely the masters of our own fates. With an increasingly internal locus of control and a greater confidence in our abilities, we can then expand our efforts outward.” (p. 137)
“Unfortunately, when it comes to our work, we are often faced with unreasonable expectations—both those we set for ourselves and those others set for us. But when our goals are unrealizable, we run the risk of ending up like that overreaching marathoner—frustrated, dejected, and stuck. In today’s results-obsessed workplace, it’s no wonder we’re impatient and overly ambitious. We want to be the top salesman or earn the highest bonus or have the biggest office—and we want it NOW.” (p. 138)
“That’s why psychologists who specialize in goal-setting theory advocate setting goals of moderate difficulty—not so easy that we don’t have to try, but not so difficult that we get discouraged and give up.14 When the challenges we face are particularly challenging and the payoff remains far away, setting smaller, more manageable goals helps us build our confidence and celebrate our forward progress, and keeps us committed to the task at hand. 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.” (p. 139)
“As with other clients, I had her make two lists—what she could control and what she couldn’t. As often happens, she was surprised, I might say shocked, to see how much of her daily life fell into the former column. She managed a team of eight people, all talented copywriters who looked to her for instruction and guidance. She was in charge of leading the creative meetings that brainstormed ideas for each client. She may not have been a top executive, but every word the firm placed on a client’s advertisement was in her hands.” (p. 140)
“So for her first Zorro Circle, we set the following goal: to improve only the copy that she herself wrote. Recommitting herself to this manageable goal not only helped her focus her energies on something she could handle; the best part was that, once her own performance improved, her circle of influence really did expand.” (p. 140)
“So we drew a Zorro Circle, literally. I found a small patch of desk that had one stack of papers on it, and we traced a circle, only a foot in diameter, around it. “Let’s clear it off,” I told Joey, “and put each paper in its rightful place.” Then, instead of moving on to the rest of the desk right away, I told him to spend the next day defending the newly clean patch against any threats to order. Given Joey’s usual habits, even that was a difficult task (he admitted as much the next day), but it was manageable. And, once he had done it, he seemed genuinely pleased. So the next day we chose another corner of his desk and applied the same rule. With each subsequent day came one more clutter-free circle—not to mention a greater sense of control and a strengthened commitment to the project. A mere two weeks later, the room was a spotless shadow of its former self.” (p. 141)