40% of personal happiness is in your hands

Hands up who remembers the "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet" TV ads?

For those of you who aren’t as old as me, it was a British advertising campaign for Hamlet cigars. A campaign that lasted until all tobacco advertising on television was banned in the UK in 1991.

The TV advertising ban was followed by a number of other interventions to raise awareness of the health impact of smoking. These culminated in smoking bans, introduced in England in July 2007, making it illegal to smoke in all enclosed work places. Since then, the number of smokers in the UK has decreased, with less than 15 percent of people smoking in 2019, compared to 22 percent in 2006.

Sometimes it takes direct interventions like this to influence how people behave and to encourage them to make better decisions about their health and well-being.

What made the Hamlet ad campaign great, and contributed to its longevity, was the simplicity of the message. Being able to easily reach for something that will make you feel happier even when things aren’t going your way. If only it were that simple!

Well, perhaps it is. Although our genes influence about 50% of our personal happiness, our circumstances (like income and environment) affect only about 10%. So, the good news is as much as 40% of personal happiness is accounted for by our daily activities, the relationships we have with others, and feeling in control of the conscious choices we make.

Being able to remain positive too and experience positive emotions like joy, interest, pride and gratitude, don't just feel good in the moment – they also affect our long term well-being.

Being happy at work

A common misconception is that success will make you happy. But psychology and neuroscience studies show that happiness fuels success, not the other way around.

One of the keys to happiness at work is feeling fulfilled; your skills are fully utilised and strengths appreciated. Also, when we're positive, our brains are more motivated, engaged, creative, energetic, resilient, and productive. So, people work best when they feel good about themselves. And happy employees make organisations more successful. Result!

Feeling in control of our actions really can make a difference to our happiness. We spend approximately a third of our adult life at work, so it surely makes sense to aim for personal happiness and success at work as well as in the rest of our lives.

When setting your objectives work with your line manager to not only think about how they align to business goals, but also about how they could;

• be a great opportunity to connect with others and build relationships

• use your strengths to their best

• enable you to engage with a project you find stimulating

• provide an avenue to learn something new

• present an opportunity to achieve a goal

• help you find meaning and purpose in what you do