Happiness is infectious, and with over a billion downloads of the song ”Happy” I suspect both Pharrell William and his bank account is looking pretty happy too.
More than feeling good, happiness and being happy is the enabler for us to experience more self-confidence, have deeper understanding, be more influential and allows us to embody a greater sense of gratitude within our life and our experiences.
The problem is, the more we focus on attaining our own personal happiness, the more it can feel like it is eluding us.
Other issues arise when we search for happiness via escapism instead of facing up to and resolving the true source of our unhappiness.
Some sage advice. We should concern ourselves not so much with the pursuit of happiness but the happiness of the pursuit.
How many of us can recall a childhood moment when we experienced happiness as a state of being?
When everything in our world was alright?
How many of us have given up on the pursuit of happiness because all the risks and uncertainties of pursuing our dream? Only to reason with ourselves that certainty, logic and self-preservation is more valuable than being true to who we really are, and what ignites passion and action within ourselves to become who we aspire to be.
As Ciara (Rosamund Pike) said to her husband Hector (Simon Pegg) in the movie Hector and the Search for Happiness “If you’re going to do this, do it totally!”
We all know “An inch of action, goes further than miles of good intentions”.
We also all know that success is simple, but at the same time it's not easy. We simply need to know specifically what we want, know how much it will cost and pay for it.
And change can happen in a moment, however coming to the decision to change can take years if not decades.
If you’re not happy now, when will you choose to be happy? Happiness in your pursuit of wholeness and happiness being your state of being.
Happiness is big business. Book’s movies, songs and businesses promoting happiness make their founders millions of dollars a year.
The UAE even has Happiness as a National Agenda with an official Minister of State for Happiness. In a bold move to improve well being and financial stability of their citizens in 2019 waived their citizens debts.
The good news is that happiness more than just the positive emotional benefits also has hard evidence data pointing to economic and productivity benefits, individually, in businesses and throughout our communities.
Increased happiness at work was found to be the lead cause of lower staff absenteeism, improved business efficiencies, more creative problem solving, longer retention of staff, greater employee satisfaction, and profit to shareholders and the wider community.
Furthermore happiness has been found to be contagious with its elements having powerful attraction.
Take for example if you were to have a helicopter view of a larger sized outdoor party. You would see that the happiest people are most often positioned in the centre of clusters i.e., surrounded by others. Their greater effect being others surrounding them also having the effect of drawing in others from the outer fringe, due to our human social genetic makeup.
Social behaviour and wider communities more often place the happiest people at the centre of attention, while elevating their position and increasing their potential to hold influence over others in a socially viral way.
Taking this one step further lets consider happiness and six degrees of separation. When a friend of one of your friends asks about you and what your friend will tell them about you.
Your close friend’s view will either positively or negatively impact that other person’s impression of you even before you have had the opportunity to meet them in person, over the phone or email. Creating or closing down your future opportunities and experiences.
Happiness is indeed a powerful force..
If you’re not happy, your unhappiness will undermine your motivation, contribution, self-confidence, opportunities and worse your own physical health.
The good news is that happiness comes from within, even though external events may also have an additional influence.
Happiness is not limited to our skill sets, nor is it a scare resource. It doesn't require money or other resources..
Happiness is a choice and we all have the power within ourselves to choose and change our perspective in an instant.
We can choose to support our choice in positive reinforcing ways.
Simply look up to the sky, push your shoulder back, this changes our posture and opens our lungs.
Breathing more air naturally improves our physical state and well being. This simple action alone helps us to feel better and happier instantly.
Another way to increase our own happiness is to acknowledge others in a positive ways. Encouraging words and praise in front of others, not only makes the recipient feel happier, there is a high probability they will reciprocate your acknowledgement and your own happiness will increase via the validation of others.
Finally happiness with ourselves is empowering.
When we know we have done the best (regardless of the outcome), most of the time we are happy, happy with ourselves regardless of the outcome. This feeds into and reinforces our feelings of contentment, gratitude, self-esteem and inner peace. These are all important because they protect us from sliding into negative patterns of self-doubt, uncertainty, regret and depression.
Martian Luther King said in his famous speech “I have a dream”. He didn’t say “I have a nightmare”.
I have a dream that we can we stop thing the future will be a nightmare.
That in the pursuit of living a life aligned to our core values we will find and be happiness. :)
And that the authenticity of us doing so we will become more self-confident, be given more opportunities and we can contribute more for the benefit of others that will ultimately be a better place for our future selves.
If you are stuck in a funk or you’re lost in a cloud of complexity feel free to contact me. Most often in life we just need someone to talk things through and to lighten our load a little.
This post was written by Me, as such they are my personal views and not financial or general advice.
You should always seek independent financial advice when it comes to choices about your personal finances. This is one area of your life where it’s worth paying for it to be done right.
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