Dr. Achor, begins his talk by retelling a story from his childhood that included his younger sister. At first glance, the story was only entertaining, but Achor later used it to support his theory of "Positive Psychology." It incorporates something called a "Happiness Advantage" which basically says your brain works better under positive circumstances than negative circumstances. In effect, you can become more creative, athletic and intelligent. He proceeds to talk about his graph, which he explains is fake, but keeps him motivated because his theory of "Positive Psychology" states "if we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average." His goal is to study those above the average and take his findings and apply them globally to help raise the average. Continuing, he talks about his experiences with colleges and universities, such as a leading boarding school in New England that has a Wellness week, which he said focused on the negatives, rather than the positives, and gave its students a negative outlook. One of his ending points was that instead of setting goals for yourself and thinking that will bring happiness, your brain instead says if you can become now, then we can become so much more successful. Dr. Achor concluded by stating a few ways you can become more positive, such as journaling positive experiences and doing random acts of kindness.
After watching Dr. Achor's presentation, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. He conveyed his opinion through not only data (some of which was fake), but also stories and experiences from his life, which gave his talk a humorous twist. It kept his audience, and myself, captivated till the end. His delivery skills were superb connecting all of his key points back to the main idea of his TED talk. Dr. Achor's argument was reasonable to begin with, saying that instead of achieving a goal and then being happy, instead be happy now and you will achieve greater heights. He's persuaded me to follow this theory of "Positive Psychology" as a daily regime, and wire my brain to unconsciously follow it, and my recommendation is for you to do the same.
To wrap it up, after watching the TED talk, "The Happy Secret to Better Work" presented by psychologist Shawn Achor, I've decided to adopt Dr. Achor's theory of being happy in the present to become more creative, athletic and intelligent for the future. My recommendation is for you to do the same and integrate it into your life.
Link to Video: http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en