I’ll be Happy When……….
When I’m out socialising and people find out what I do for a living, I feel privileged that they are genuinely interested and curious about what I do.
Some people ask questions or tell me about things in their life that they are not happy with and what they should do.
I don’t mind at all, in fact I love being able to make a difference on the spot for people.
Whether I’m chatting to these people or to a client in my consulting room who has expressed that they are not happy, I have a question that I use a lot.
If you’re not feeling too happy at the moment, take some time to answer it now.
Is there an ending to the sentence “I’ll be happy when ……..?”
Some people genuinely don’t have an ending to the sentence whereas others say things like “When I get a better job, find a partner, get a promotion, lost 2 stone, have more friends or win the lottery.”
All absolutely true for them in their world at that point.
However, I would always be of the opinion – why wait?
Be happy now!
Surely, you would be more likely to get a great job, partner, promotion or friends if you were happy while you were looking for them instead of the other way around?
Who wants to be with, or give a job or promotion to, someone who is miserable?
In this column over the next few weeks I’ll be looking at the subject of happiness and how we can get more of it in our lives right now, instead of waiting for it to be given to us.
So, step one and this is the only area of life where I would advocate the following tactic.
Fake it until you make it.
Act happy.
Put on a happy face and pretend to be optimistic and grateful for the things you have in your life.
Start now, as you sit and read this, pull the biggest, cheesiest grin you possibly can.
Bigger than that!
Experiments show that even a fake smile releases those feel good chemicals and give our mood a lift.
Also, people who feign happiness rapidly begin feeling better about themselves.
Other people unconsciously notice too and will start to treat you differently.
Try it, you might like it! I’ll share more in next week’s column.