Dont Worry, Be Happy! How To Remain Positive And Happy While Running Your Business

Normally on this site, I write about fitness marketing or business building but today I want to talk to you about something that I think is essentially motivating all of us in some small way on a daily basis – finding and keeping happiness. Now I know that this sounds a little “herbal” but if you sat 10 people down in a room and asked them what they REALLY wanted in life, I can guarantee that at least 7 would say “I just want to be happy”, so let’s roll with it.

I have always had a really strong interest in this topic because above all else – life is by far the most most fun when you are happy.  So I have spent many hours reading, work-shopping, meditating and generally learning about all the many a varied approaches to living a happy life. You could call it my personal side-project.

Recently, I came across a book by Dr. Timothy Sharp (local Sydney dude) called The Happiness Handbook. Dr. Sharp runs a Happiness Institute where her researches everything that it takes to achieve happiness for every-day people like you and me. From his research, he has but together a simple framework of strategies that anyone can do on a daily basis to maintain a happy outlook on life (handy).

Through my own experience and reading, I find that these six factors provide a really good practical framework for anyone to follow so lets have a quick look through:

C = Clarity (of life’s goals, direction and purpose)

H = Healthy Living (it’s hard to be happy if you are sick and run down all the time)

O = Optimism (a positive attitude about yourself, your future and the world)

O = Others (the healthy relationships with others)

S = Strengths (your inherent qualities and attributes)

E = Enjoy The Moment (have fun and be grateful and appreciative)

As you can see, if you put all the steps together they spell CHOOSE. Obviously with all of these points you must make a conscious choice to work on all six aspects. So lets go into a little bit more detail for each category to find out how…

Clarity

This is a simple act of spending some time and having a good think of what you actually want to get out of life. Once that clear purpose is established, then set about establishing clearly defined goals that are going to get you there (you know, like you do with your clients all the time).

In my experience, the people that I come across that have the “why” sorted out always seem to have that steely, determined focus and they enjoy the process of working to get their goals. Not having clarity on why you are doing what you are doing seems to create that creepy, stressful feeling that none of us like. So take the time and work out what you want and why it is important to you (this may may take a little longer than a coffee break to sort out…)

Healthy Living

Now while this one may sound a little obvious it is also one that gets forgotten about really quickly when all those “important” things pop up. Remember that it is really hard to be happy if you are tired and sick all of the time. Choosing activities that not only get your body moving but ones that your really enjoy doing and a great combination (healthy living doesn’t have to be a boring, monotonous life sentence).

So healthy, enjoyable activities = happy days.

I know for me, surfing is one activity that not only gives me an great workout but leaves me feeling completely elated on a regular basis. Now if you add a healthy eating plan to your favorite activities then you will really start to kick some happiness goals (even if you are having a shitty day). Now I hear some people already saying “this sounds great, but I just don’t have time”. Well, this is where you choose to happy or you choose to be busy…..your call.

My tip – identify 5 activities that make you happy and do them often. Sacrifice these activities at your own peril (sorry, that is probably a little dramatic).

Optimism

Optimism is all about making the choice to have a positive outlook on everything that happens to you. Some of you may consider yourself an optimist and others may have a little way to go but everyone can change. Now the optimists out there will believe that last statement and the pessimists will think that they can never change the way they think – point made :-)

Science clearly shows that we all posses the ability to change the way we think – so none of us are committed for life. If you find your thoughts swinging to the negative side, stop yourself and ask yourself why. If it is a non-existent worry, then immediately try not to give it another thought and move on with your day – life is too short  for false worry.

Others

No man or women is an island. The quickening pace of our society today is having a flow on effect with an entire generation of people becoming increasingly happy to sit with their forehead plastered to their laptop or smart phone. Some may argue that they building relationships using social media but for me, developing and maintaining positive relationships is much more than that.

Firstly, assess who you are spending time with as you want to having a happy and productive two way relationship. Secondly, relationships are all about giving, listening and sharing from both parties so make sure you are putting in at least as much as you are taking out. Is it time to increase your deposits to the friendship bank?

Strengths

Now this doesn’t mean how many single arm chin-ups you can do, rather it is referring to your personal attribute and qualities. Happy people are far more aware of their strengths and they use them more effectively in their daily lives. In turn, happy people often become more successful as well.  Many people ignore their strengths, rather focusing on their faults and trying to improve them.

For example; if you identify that are great at working by yourself, have impeccable integrity and have a love of learning new things then you simply play to those strengths. One thing happy people quickly become aware of is that you don’t have to be great at everything to succeed or to achieve wonderful things.

Enjoy The Moment

Now enjoying the moment is something that most people have heard about at some time or another but it can be rather elusive. He all have a tendency for our thoughts to either in the past or planing towards the future. Not very often in our life full of distraction, do we stop and enjoy what we are doing at that very moment.

One simple thing that everyone can do to increase this aspect of your life is to become more mindful. We have five senses and they are all operating in over-drive taking in this amazing world of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches. Make some space in your distraction filled day and just enjoy what you are doing – feel it for a change (without worry about what is going to happen in the next financial year).

So there it is – a really simple, clear collections of strategies to maintain a happy, positive outlook on life and allow yourself that enjoy your time. You can CHOOSE that or you can CHOOSE to be busy, stressed, angry and looking for the time and place where everything is going to be better.

What will you choose?

Cheers

Rick :-)

PS: If any part of this post struck a cord and you want to read about how to do this in more detail, just click the link to get your own copy of the The Happiness Handbook (#aff).

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, swearing personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches, writes books and runs an online community for personal trainers but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read, subscribe to blog here or for more daily banter, you can follow him on Twitter here.

Tagged as: Attitude, Business Satisfaction, Clarity, Happiness