Have you ever seriously considered this question? Take a moment to track back to your early education. Think back to your school timetable, the homework, the tests, the relentless pursuit of better grades and excellence being the key to achieving what you desired in life.

The path of success leading to happiness is baked into us from an early age. Yet neuroscience suggests we may have the sequence the wrong way round.

Since the Industrial Revolution, it’s been success first.

Our current education and schooling systems broadly follow a structure and ethos that was born out of the industrial revolution. Systems primarily designed to power enterprise and to provide the modern industrial world with its quota of workforce in each vertical.

So, for generations we’ve pushed ourselves and our children to succeed in this system of leaderboards and score-driven academia, relegating and forgetting the softer skills in life.

And, once we’ve left education and entered the world of work, we’re told time and again that if we focus and keep on competing and climbing the ladder of our chosen profession, then we will be a success. The reward for that success will be the job, the home, the car and the partner of our dreams and the assumption is that ultimately we will be happy.

Has our drive to put success first made us happy?

With rising costs of higher education, rising student loans, competition for work, and rising house prices, we have created a stressful society that demands success. This leads to the workplace, where mental health problems are now the leading cause of illness in the UK. Mental health problems cause 70 million workdays to be lost each year, leaving employers reeling. Costs 2.4 billion annually.

According to a recent study of 1,000 full-time employees in the United States, more than 50 percent said they feel more stressed today than they did a year ago. And, 60% said that they suffer from stress at work all or most of the time.

Are we chasing the tail of our own success in the pursuit of happiness? Is it time for us to change our attitude?

Neuroscience has proven happiness precedes success.

Studies in neuroscience and positive psychology show that happiness is a key stimulus and a precursor to success, which is supported by two decades of research.

One reason is that positive emotions make the brain work better. Positive emotions stimulate the release of serotonin and dopamine, which significantly increases motor control, motivation, memory, problem solving, mental focus and the ability to act on multiple concepts simultaneously. So, positive thinking can really make you more successful.

A 2018 study by Stanford researchers found that positivity for a subject increases hippocampus activity, a part of the brain that is closely linked to memory and learning. He discovered that school children not only like the subjects they are good at, they also perform better in the subjects they like because their brains work better.

Although the evidence is conclusive, the Positive Psychological Movement has yet to spread widely in the mainstream.

Four things you can practice now to put happiness first in your pursuit of success.

With the evidence in hand, we can take tips from some of the leaders in the field of positive psychology.

• 1: Pursue meaningful engagement.

Positive psychologist Martin Seligman talks about meaningful engagement as a key element of happiness. We gain more meaning as we identify our greatest strengths and redesign our lives for use in our social and family interactions. "The best way to discover this value is to cultivate our unique strengths to contribute to the happiness of our fellow human beings," he was quoted as saying.

• 2: Practice mindfulness.

A study by Harvard Psychologists found that we spend about 47% of our waking hours thinking about what is not happening. And that usually makes us unhappy. Solution? Focus on what we are doing and what we are experiencing at the moment. In other words, developing mindfulness skills.

• 3: Strengthen your circle of friends.

In his book The Happiness Advantage, Sean Accor talks about the challenges we face and the times of stress. This is what we choose to handle, which is the most telling. While some people choose to retreat when difficulties arise, the most successful people, instead, make time for friends, colleagues and family, always trying to strengthen their circle of friends.

• 4: Develop your soft skills to enable you to thrive.

When asked which professional skills are most in demand, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said that what the job market is calling for right now are the best soft skills people. They are personal and communication skills that include empathy, listening skills and team building skills.

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