Sumo Logic has partnered with Shawn Achor, researcher and New York Times best selling author, to bring you a four-part series specifically focused on helping us adjust our mindset in this current climate.
Social connection in psychology is based upon the perception of social support. You can have tons of people around you, but still feel alone. You can also be alone, but feel supported and connected to loved ones. On this episode, Shawn discusses how, by making some small positive actions, you can increase your brain's awareness of social support and feel more connected to others.
You have more control over how you perceive the world than you may think, even in a world dominated by stressful headlines. In Shawn's work with the military, he has found that we can work through stress if we have the right lens and do it with others instead of going it alone. In this episode, Shawn discusses how to create a "moat" around your day by tackling the weakest points of your day - the beginning and end. He also touches on how focusing on gratefulness creates a "background app" in your brain that searches out the world for positives, rather than negatives.
Irrational optimists ignore the problems which confront them. Pessimists believe their behavior doesn't matter, so they become paralyzed during crisis. A rational optimist starts with a realistic assessment of the present, but also maintains the belief that behavior matters. In this episode, Shawn talks about how optimism doesn't shield you from negative events, but it does increase your adaptivity during crisis. He also discusses how creating short term goals and cataloging positive progress can help you overcome the sense of powerless in the face of unprecedented events.
One of the biggest mental threats for us all right now is putting life on pause. Happiness only flourishes when we feel there is growth. Stagnation is the bane of joy. In this episode, Shawn discusses how you can enforce good habits and decrease bad habits by changing the "Activation Energy" of those actions. He also talks about how achieving small goals can shift your mental image of yourself and propel you forward to incredible, cumulative change. Finally, he touches on how the act of giving, rather than receiving, helps us engage our reality and find positive outcomes.
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After spending twelve years at Harvard University, Shawn Achor has become one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success. His research on mindset made the cover of Harvard Business Review, his TED talk is one of the most popular of all time with over 13 million views, and his lecture airing on PBS has been seen by millions. Shawn has lectured or worked with over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as the NFL, the NBA, the Pentagon and the White House. Shawn is the author of New York Times best-selling books The Happiness Advantage (2010) and Big Potential (2018). He has now lectured in more than 50 countries speaking to CEOs in China, doctors in Dubai, schoolchildren in South Africa, and farmers in Zimbabwe. His Happiness Advantage training is one of the largest and most successful positive psychology corporate training programs in the world. Shawn’s research has been published in the top psychology journal for work he did at UBS in partnership with Yale University to transform how stress impacts the body, and he recently did a two-hour interview with Oprah at her house to discuss his mission to bring positive psychology to the world.
The guy behind the mic
Ben is a veteran of the IT Operations market, with a two decade career across large and small companies like Loudcloud, BladeLogic, Northrop Grumman, EDS, and BMC. Ben got to do DevOps before DevOps was cool, working with government agencies and major commercial brands to be more agile and move faster. More recently, Ben spent 5 years in product management at Sumo Logic, and is now running product marketing for Operations Analytics at Sumo Logic. His latest project, Masters of Data, has let him combine his love of podcasts and music with his love of good conversations.
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