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The Power of Beliefs: How Strengthening Seven Core Beliefs Predicts Greater Success and a Better Life
Not yet published
Expected 5 May 26The internationally bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential illuminates how harnessing our beliefs can influence our success in the real world.
Same world. Different beliefs. Different outcomes.
The greatest predictor of your future is the beliefs you hold about the world. In this extraordinary book, world-renowned researcher and author Shawn Achor illuminates how beliefs change the math about what is possible and probable in our lives. And by changing the math, beliefs change our path.
Drawing on two decades of research, as well as his work with NASA, the NFL, and over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, Shawn has discovered that the predictive power of beliefs has increased significantly. Beliefs about ourselves, money, the world, politics, faith, and work do more than shape the lens through which we see the world. They shape what happens next. Scientifically speaking, beliefs don’t just reflect reality. Beliefs bend reality.
Unfortunately, our beliefs can be empowering or they can be destructive. During what Achor calls the Great Drift, we have seen the staggering rise of the Four Horsemen of the Modern World: burnout, anxiety, loneliness, and depression. We are underperforming our true potential. But there is hope. Stunning new research in this book reveals the seven most predictive “core beliefs” that alter our future health, success, wealth, and education. Scientifically, these core beliefs take the cap off our potential, enrich us, strengthen us, and heal us.
Shawn explores the six main ways of changing your and others’ beliefs using research-based strategies he has tested everywhere from Wall Street to impoverished schools in Africa, from Camp Pendleton to Camp David:
• The Disaster Elevator: change what part of the brain processes the world.
• The Memory DeLorean: change the memory.
• Stopping Negative Mantras: change the language.
• Creating a Neural Tribe: change the sources.
• Starting the Wave: change the contagious actions.
• Common Texts, Common Action: change the texts.
The Power of Beliefs shows how seven core beliefs predict your present, bend the probability of future success, and, in the modern world, are the key to creating a better life for you and for others.
Same world. Different beliefs. Different outcomes.
The greatest predictor of your future is the beliefs you hold about the world. In this extraordinary book, world-renowned researcher and author Shawn Achor illuminates how beliefs change the math about what is possible and probable in our lives. And by changing the math, beliefs change our path.
Drawing on two decades of research, as well as his work with NASA, the NFL, and over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, Shawn has discovered that the predictive power of beliefs has increased significantly. Beliefs about ourselves, money, the world, politics, faith, and work do more than shape the lens through which we see the world. They shape what happens next. Scientifically speaking, beliefs don’t just reflect reality. Beliefs bend reality.
Unfortunately, our beliefs can be empowering or they can be destructive. During what Achor calls the Great Drift, we have seen the staggering rise of the Four Horsemen of the Modern World: burnout, anxiety, loneliness, and depression. We are underperforming our true potential. But there is hope. Stunning new research in this book reveals the seven most predictive “core beliefs” that alter our future health, success, wealth, and education. Scientifically, these core beliefs take the cap off our potential, enrich us, strengthen us, and heal us.
Shawn explores the six main ways of changing your and others’ beliefs using research-based strategies he has tested everywhere from Wall Street to impoverished schools in Africa, from Camp Pendleton to Camp David:
• The Disaster Elevator: change what part of the brain processes the world.
• The Memory DeLorean: change the memory.
• Stopping Negative Mantras: change the language.
• Creating a Neural Tribe: change the sources.
• Starting the Wave: change the contagious actions.
• Common Texts, Common Action: change the texts.
The Power of Beliefs shows how seven core beliefs predict your present, bend the probability of future success, and, in the modern world, are the key to creating a better life for you and for others.
- GenresNonfiction
208 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication May 5, 2026
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About the author
Shawn Achor
41 books790 followersShawn Achor is an American educator, author, and speaker known for his advocacy of positive psychology. He is best known for his research reversing the formula of success leading to happiness—his research shows that happiness in fact leads to success. Achor spent 12 years studying what makes people happy at Harvard University. He later authored The Happiness Advantage and founded the Institute of Positive Research and GoodThinkInc. His TEDx talk "The Happy Secret to Better Work" is one of the 20-most viewed TED talks.
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book is classic Shawn Achor. Optimistic, science grounded, and genuinely fun to read. The Power of Beliefs takes decades of research and turns it into ideas you can actually use without feeling overwhelmed. It is incredibly digestible, full of humor, and backed by solid data from workplaces, healthcare systems, and global organizations. I have read Achor’s previous work and was excited going in, and this one may be my favorite. It clearly shows how beliefs are not fluffy thoughts but measurable predictors of performance, health, and connection.
What made this book especially timely for me is that I am studying burnout prevention and imposter thoughts, and the overlap is striking. The reframing tools around worst case thinking, meaning making, and shared beliefs at work felt immediately relevant. The research on burnout, loneliness, and belief contagion mirrors what I am seeing in both the literature and real life. Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the advanced copy. This is one of those books that feels hopeful without being naive. Everyone should read it. Highly recommend.
What made this book especially timely for me is that I am studying burnout prevention and imposter thoughts, and the overlap is striking. The reframing tools around worst case thinking, meaning making, and shared beliefs at work felt immediately relevant. The research on burnout, loneliness, and belief contagion mirrors what I am seeing in both the literature and real life. Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the advanced copy. This is one of those books that feels hopeful without being naive. Everyone should read it. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 of 1 review