Catalyst Strategic Consultants

What people think will make them happy won’t. By that, I mean the usual goals: money, freedom from work, and the like.

Some learn this the hard way by achieving, then wondering what went wrong. Some spend their lives trying to gain the ground to allow them to learn this the hard way!
How come, with all our prosperity, are we a disappointed, cranky bunch?
Well, according to a new film, It’s not about “when” – i’e. when I hit on my stock, when I have my degree, when I find the right one. It’s about now. And it’s about how. How we do our day to day living, our mode of life. It’s not the big stuff. That’s the conclusion of a new documentary called “Happy”.
The film studies many people over the world and discovers that material prosperity is, if anything, inversely related to joie de vivre. The most well adjusted folks? in India, in the backwoods, anywhere but the urban pressure world we are in.

What can we learn from these folks to have a happier life here, where we are?

* Get in the Zone: the Japanese (hardly forerunners in the world of psychology, you might think!) made a monumental contribution. If you are absorbed in doing what you’re doing, you will forget your troubles and woes. Who knew?

You don’t have to be Ovechkin to get in the zone. Just deliberately structure your time doing what comes naturally to you. Do it lots – and fully. The happiness index soars.

* Family, Friends and Community: I just got back from Hornby Island where community is a way of life. People are so warm, engaging, connected. They look at you in the eye, not away, on approach.   If the community has a cause, there no problem gaining support for it. If someone is in tough, the others respond and help her get through a difficult period.   Disconnected from deep friends? Connection is good – makes you a happier soul.

* Exercise: Being active every day calls endorphins in spades. Ergo, mood improves, as soon as the exercise starts.

* Doing Something Meaningful: I was just in Winnipeg talking to a TEC audience about Presidential Competencies [the presidential job – something that is meaningful to me!]. Barry Bernhart, the Chair setting up the event, wasn’t content to just demonstrate the benefits of our organization. He included the Christy Djinovicks- exec director of Canadian Child Protection in Winnipeg. The assembled heard a story of care for children abused or taken and the expansion of their efforts. Barry used the opportunity to advance his altruistic side. And it was no loss, quite the reverse, for us to include the presentation in our attention.

* Keep Working/ Be Engaged: Really a subset of Get in the Zone.   Structure has no impact on life satisfaction. Until it does. Too many live in a fantasy of one day getting away from it all.

When life structure is changed or, worse, stopped, then the bottom drops out. Not all have the best catchment arrangement.

Here is the link for more… http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/happy/6518420/story.html

Sincerely,
Doug Bouey
Catalyst Strategic Consultants Ltd.