Binge Thinking

How to be happy - Ros Palmer

How happy are you?  Go on, on a scale of 1 - 10 at this particular moment what is your level of happiness?  Does it vary from work to home?  Day to day? 
 
According to the latest research by GfK NOP for the Happiness Formula series on BBC 2, people in Britain are less happy than in the 1950s despite the fact that we are three times richer.  Indeed, people saying that they are "very happy"  has fallen from 52% in 1957 to just 36% today. 

The other night I watched a preview of 'The Boat That Rocked' and although it is obviously a Brit flick portraying a somewhat halcyon picture of Britain in the 1960's it did look fun back in the Swinging 60's.  And the music was great!
 
Today's lack of happiness in Britain mirrors that of the USA where in the late 90's only 30% of those interviewed by the General Social Survey describe themselves as "very happy".  As the BBC says: "The story of wealth failing to translate into extra happiness is the story of the Western world."  Mind you, Switzerland, a country synonymous with rich bankers, is ranked as the happiest country in world rankings.   Go figure.
 
When GfK NOP asked people whether they thought that the government should be focused on making us happy or wealthy, a whopping 81% wanted happiness as the goal and only 13% wanted wealth.  And when asked to choose what the two most important sources of happiness in their lives are, out of 1001 people only 77 said work fulfillment.  How sad.
 
So let's do something today to bring that level of happiness up again.  The adage is that 'If you don't enjoy it, change it'.  We all have choices.  Whatever the factor that is stopping you from being happy is, you can only change things for the better if you choose to find your 'reason why'.  At the present, it may be that you actually are holding onto a stronger reason 'why not' to make a change.  Perhaps the effort needed to change things can be very uncomfortable or they may want to avoid failure or embarrassment. 
 
Why not start with asking yourself this first question: 'What might I possibly do to change the situation?'. 

Need some help?  Then look at our website and take a number of the personal thinking exercises to focus your thoughts.  

In our next ezine we will focus on 'How to develop a personal passion'.  Look out for it and sign up now to make sure it arrives in your email inbox.  For now, here is the Go MAD Thinking passion statement.  We clearly think and work at person passion a great deal:

"Being the brightness is one step beyond seeing the light. To be passionate about opening minds, encouraging development, gaining insight, exploring parameters, igniting desires, harnessing energy, inspiring people, moving forward, increasing skills, sowing thoughts, achieving goals, reviewing effectiveness, releasing potential, facing fears, generating happiness, taking responsibility, enjoying learning, overcoming obstacles, building teams, facilitating success, having fun, getting started, believing in choices, being the brightness and making a difference. The answers are on the inside."