I came up with the idea of The Sunshine Effect because I realized that being a good person and doing good work was ultimately a very forgettable combination. We are five times more likely to remember negative things that happen to us than positive ones. I'll bet most of us can remember most of the people we worked with who made everyone miserable, but how many of the people who were pleasant keep that kind of memory space? Don't get me wrong that makes sense to me, if you go down to the river and find some delicious berries while you watch the water for an hour, you feel great while you're doing it but that memory will fade as the days go on. Now, if you go eat the berries and puke like the girl from the exorcist for 2 days, you better believe you'll remember not to eat those berries again. Thats just basic survival at work. However, I don't think its hyperbole to say that those types of events are written on our brain in sharpie, while those pleasant experiences are written in pencil.
This isn't groundbreaking research but then the question hit me like Wile E Coyote dropping an anvil. How can you be a good person and also be remembered? There is this beautiful quote my Maya Angelou "People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel". I love that, the culture of a place can be one of the greatest reasons people love being there. However, in a professional setting, I still need people to remember what I did. So, how can we reframe the way we remember things. How can we forget the people who made us miserable and remember the people who made us feel great.
This is one of the things I want to explore with the Sunshine Effect.
I think one of the first places we look has to be the science of being happy. There's been so much research in what makes people happy and the truth tends to be much simpler than we all make it. Happiness isn't something that happens to you, it's something your brain is wired to seek, but also wired to adapt away from. Well that seems rude, but we are so much more likely to remember the things that hurt us than the things that make us feel good (more on that later). We tend to overestimate how much our circumstances will change how we feel. The job, the house, the opportunity, the new phone, the vacation will make me happy but what really moves the needle is significantly more human. It's the quality of our relationships, the meaning we find in what we do (not just the job but how we spend our time), and the small intentional things do that are built into daily life.
Last, we will be talking to some people about their story, how they've found success and what it took to get there.
Follow along to stay in the Sunshine!