Don't Worry...Be Happy
Happiness, in a wide array of forms, is one of the most frequently promoted self improvement subjects today. There are extensive books and newspaper articles to read, blogs to subscribe to, workshops to attend, and television shows to a help you: a) assess your level of ‘happiness’ and, b) address whatever roadblocks stand in the way of being ‘happier’. Gretchen Rubin published ‘The Happiness Project’ in 2009 and western society has been struggling to achieve elusive ‘happiness’ ever since.
There is no doubt that achieving a greater degree of happiness is a worthwhile goal but the constellation of resources now available to address the opportunity is overwhelming. The happiness pool is a kilometer wide and a centimeter deep. The result is, of course, that most people choose not to use anything that is sustainably effective.
Can anything be done? Of course!
Happiness, like many emotions, means something unique to each person….which is why most ‘solutions’ don’t work. The place to start is developing a self awareness of what happiness means for you and whether you need to do anything about it. The unrealized potential in ones own happiness then informs the type(s) of tools that might work best.
Managing happiness – whatever that means for you – needs to a life’s work, so whatever you do, needs to be incorporated into all the things that fill you existence.
One of the areas a coach can be most effective is helping you create a foundation from which to bring more happiness into your life.