RESEARCH IS SHOWING THAT MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE INDICATING THAT THEY FEEL LESS IN CONTROL OF THEIR LIVES.
This research and others has resulted in the United Nations declaring a ‘World Happiness Day’ on the 20th March every year.
According to the World Happiness Report of 2015, many national leaders are talking about the importance of well-being as a guide for their nations. Examples include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Ruler of Dubai.
The UK is also launching this year an official but independent “What Works Centre for Wellbeing” dedicated to making policies and services work for well-being.
The UAE is worth special mention in part for the extent to which happiness and well-being have been made central tenets of the design and delivery of the National Agenda “… to be the happiest of all nations.”
At the Emirate level, when Dubai Plan 2021 was launched in December of 2014, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said, “The first objective for the Dubai Plan 2021 is achieving people’s happiness.”
In February 2016 The United Arab Emirates appointed, Ohood Al Roumi as their first Minister for Happiness.
You might well ask, “So just what does a Minister of Happiness do?” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, spelled out his vision in a series of tweets, saying the new position will help create social good. A new post, Minister of State for Happiness, will align and drive government policy to create social good and satisfaction.
Wow – Governments wanting to assist their people to be happy! I believe that this certainly is a step in the right direction, but we need a huge shift in thinking in terms of how we are learning to manage our well-being.
We need a greater awareness of what we as a society are doing to society. This requires individuals, families, businesses and governments to be brutally honest with themselves and to not just talk and continue on the same path.
I believe that this awareness needs to begin in the home and then be reinforced in the schools. Too many families are breaking up. Too many children are being born into broken homes. Parents are too busy being busy to really connect on an emotional level with their kids and therefore they expect the educators to fill the gap.
More and more people keep chasing after success but they have no real vision of what that success really is. Surely, if in the chase for success, it causes people to sacrifice what they truly value – their true intentions – that can’t be success.
Emotional Intelligence is all about managing ourselves and our relationships with others so that we can live our intentions/values.
Interestingly, when we start living our intentions we feel happy and successful. Happiness and success are emotional states of well-being. Yes, everyone I coach and nearly everyone I meet would like to experience these emotions, but as already indicated; the fast majority finds these emotions very illusive.
I would like to share some ideas on how to begin to experience these emotional states of well-being more frequently and cope with the dem ands of living in this ‘millennial age’.
In this article I will deal with the first step:
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!
DECIDE TODAY, THIS VERY MINUTE, THAT YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE BACK RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE.
You will not believe the number of people I meet who spend their lives blaming everyone and everything for their lot in life. “My boss is an ogre”, “My Company doesn’t care”, “The economy is so poor, “Ahmed didn’t greet me this morning”, “My spouse …. The weather …. The government…. And on and on and on!
They are always blaming circumstances, the environment, their past experiences, their…. for their own misery. As a result they are always “at the effect of” something – something is always acting on them and therefore causing them misery. This is typical of what is often referred to as the “Victim Mentality”. Because if I am at the “effect” of my spouse, the boss, the weather, the government, society, circumstance, etc. – I am always the victim – “they are to blame for my unhappiness.”
This type of thinking prevents you from changing your world. You remain frustrated, unhappy, fearful, angry, resentful, etc. Remember – You don’t see the World as the World really is, you see the World as YOU are. If therefore you are angry – the World is an angry World. The person next to you, however, might find their World to be a very happy World. The difference is your state of mind. You can’t underst and how they could be happy in this ‘angry’ world – Your world!
It is always far easier to blame something or someone for your misery because if they are the cause of your misery you don’t need to do anything, you ‘can’t’ do anything, you are helpless – you are the VICTIM. Result – nothing changes, in fact it gets worse, it perpetuates your unhappiness or frustration, anger, etc.
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD
YOUR WORLD WILL CHANGE WHEN YOU CHANGE – YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR WORLD.
So here are two actions that I would like you to carry out.
- For the next 30 days write down, every day, five things that you are grateful for in your life. It does not matter if you repeat any of these things on a different day.
- Make a list of all the things that you want to change in your life. Identify the most important change that you want to make and for the next 30 days act on that change.
Simple – only two steps.
YOU can change YOUR world, YOU can experience happiness & success, and YOU can achieve the extraordinary!
It’s only up to YOU.
Your friend,
Dave
Dave Boreham is an international recognized coach, speaker, trainer, author, entrepreneur, family man and a citizen of humanity who draws together capacities, talents and dreams and drives them into a unified force for change and growth in people and organisations. He is CEO of MCA Training International and author of the best-selling books, “Up Where You Belong” and “Have Do Be Anything You Want”