A couple of years ago I started writing a book entitled…” Why can’t I just be happy?”
I know that “happiness is an inside job” and that it is my thoughts, not my circumstances, that determine my feelings of happiness. That knowledge didn’t stop me from writing about all the circumstances of my life that I attributed as the causes of my unhappiness.
The link between increased happiness and increased productivity or effectiveness in the workplace is now firmly established within organisations. Despite this, many companies and organisations appear to fall into one of 3 categories when it comes to improving productivity through an improved happiness/employee satisfaction score:
Category 1…No effort was made or only lip service was paid to the link. Managers and leaders continue with tried, familiar, and tired methods of motivation: with some even denying or ignoring the link between happiness and improved business performance.
Category 2…The link is acknowledged, and some effort is made to improve happiness but generally only as one-off initiatives or annual events.
Category 3…These organisations recognise the link and make ongoing regular efforts to ensure the happiness of their workers is improved both for the sake of the business and the employees.
While organisations in this 3rd category can be expected to exhibit greater happiness and productivity than those in category 1 or 2, in my experience this is not always the situation. Again, from my experience, many of the “happiness initiatives” come from the paradigm that circumstances are what affect our happiness when in truth it is always our thoughts about our circumstances that are the root cause of our feelings. So, while well-intentioned, the efforts to improve happiness are often misdirected because of this misunderstanding around one of the fundamental truths of being human…” we are living in the feeling of our thinking” (Sydney Banks). It is always thought that creates the feelings, and ultimately the emotions, we experience.
I’m still writing the book by the way; it is just a little slower in production now that I have discovered the true source of my happiness…more on that another day.