It occurred to me last week that I’ve become pretty gloomy in the posts I’ve been putting up these last few weeks. This happened in the car on my way home and I began to reflect on good things that have happened to me recently, the fact that I’ve considered myself a lucky person all my life, that for me the glass is generally half full and not half empty. At least until I missed the exit off the Interstate.

Then yesterday, I came across this article in an email from a group that regularly sends me stuff about insurance benefits. Typically not much there to share with you but not this time. There’s a good message here and I encourge you to read it. Tony

September 29, 2011 By Kathryn Mayer

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not exactly an optimist. If someone asked if I’m happy, I’d have to think about it. Though I suspect I wouldn’t have to think about it so much if I made more money. Or bought a house, got promoted, had a kid or shed a few pounds.

And I’m certainly not alone in my hypotheticals.

In Dallas earlier this week, I listened to Harvard researcher Shawn Achor talk about misconceptions (mine included) of happiness. The conventional idea is that if we work hard we’ll be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy.

Apparently, we’re all wrong. This formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. In fact, when we’re positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. And apparently it’s not an empty mantra. His team has a whole slew of statistics that back it up.

Brokers, you’ll appreciate this one: Optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 56 percent.

HR pros will like this: Happy workers have higher levels of productivity, produce higher sales, perform better in leadership positions, and receive higher performance ratings and higher pay. They also enjoy more job security and are less likely to take sick days, to quit, or to become burned out.

And we’ll all like this: Doctors put in a positive mood before making a diagnosis show almost three times more intelligence and creativity than doctors in a neutral state, and they make accurate diagnoses 19 percent faster.

Sure, it sounds great, but apparently we gotta do something to get to that happy place. Achor has a few ideas: journaling, exercising, meditating, conducting random acts of kindness and writing down three things you’re grateful for each morning.

Despite the temptation to disregard Achor’s challenge and instead make sarcastic remarks during his speech, I figured if I pick one thing to work on, it might as well be to become a little happier. So I’m vowing to try a couple and see if they stick (Achor says if you force yourself to do something for 21 days, it’ll become a habit you don’t have to force yourself to do).

I’ll write what’s good in life each morning instead of my usual routine of complaining about what’s not. And though I don’t like exercising, I know I should give that a try (especially since part of my job entails writing about obesity stats).

And if developing a pattern in life exercising doesn’t perk me up after a few weeks, at least I can stop being a hypocrite writing about the importance of individual wellness—at least temporarily, anyhow.