Posts Tagged ‘happiness’

Here is the list of the books I read this month.  They all deal with the subject of happiness and success from different perspectives.  You can read them on your own, most are available from the library or you and I can talk and I will share what I’ve learned.

 

 
 Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

Published ten years ago this was the first book to start me thinking about the relationship between happiness and the work we do.

 

 
 Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

The newest thinking on the subject by the same social psychologist, this book includes accomplishment and relationship as components. Both are the rewards we earn when we build a profitable business.

 

 
 Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide

As student of the author of the two books listed above, this book encourages readers to develop goals in 16 areas of life.  This is a great starting place for clarifying your personal and business goals.

 

 
 Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals

Unfortunatly, having a goal  doesn’t guarentee you will succeed.  However, there are some simple, scientifically proven techniques to improve your results. Check out this how to guide for goal setters everywhere.        

 

 
Disclosure! Links to the books in the post above are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you click on them and buy something, I receive an affiliate commission. If you are in business too, then I don’t suppose you will mind but I thought you should know.

 Are you driven to accomplish big business goals? Do you work hard to succeed even though you already have enough to get along nicely?  If so, welcome to one of the drivers of human happiness – accomplishment.

The idea of winning for winning’s sake is not necessarily PC.  Fiercely ambitious people are admired but not necessarily liked or loved.  Winning at all costs can cost you what we all agree is the bedrock of happiness, love and friendship.  Still we all want to achieve. We all pursue some form of winning: collecting, knowing, subduing, or scoring, for no other reason than to achieve.

We all know people who work hard to acquire more and more money even though wealth will not necessarily make them happier. We all know – you might even be one of those people – who work hard to accomplish some subjective version of success even when, like fame or wealth or power, it can bring with it burdensome responsibilities.

Most entrepreneurs feel this drive to accomplish great things; to create something successful;  to build a system that works, creates profit and solves a problem, in short a profitable business

The important thing to remember about accomplishment is that accomplishment for accomplishment sake does not produce lasting happiness.   For your business success to produce true happiness it must engage you in meaningful activity that leverages your skills and talents (competence) and builds personal relationships whle preserving your unique individuality.

In my next posts I will look closer at these important elements of human happiness and how they can be pursued through wise small business leadership.

Feel free to comment.  Does the work you’ve chosen to do make you happy?

Image by Flickr user rbackowski, licensed under CC 2.0

Did anyone see the PBS special on Happiness that is on air three night this week? The gist of the latest thinking on happiness is that it takes other people – relationships- to make us happy. The news here is that it is not money that makes us happy though, admittedly, money helps.

So I am in the right place. I am working to create a community of small business owners who are supporting each other as we each build a business that will share our unique value, in the form of a product or service ,with the the world.

I am excited about the process but it is taking time from my composing of my long and perhaps rather dull posts. While I marshal along my web designer and work my way through a 12 week blogging course I will share with you what I am learning and invite you all to take a look at my new web site content as it is created and posted.

Today, I will use my first new blogging skill to share a video. The intention of this well done video is to offer a direct sales opportunity for a skin care product. I am NOT endorsing the product. I haven’t tried it. But for anyone considering starting a business to negotiate their way through this down economy or searching for a neiche market, this video offer both encouragement and some interesting data.

My apologies for the commerical in the beginning. It comes with the territory. Enjoy