Happiness: It’s Clearly Personal

Yesterday’s closing question, “How do you reconcile happiness and satisfaction with Change?” prompted some heartfelt and wide-ranging thought.

Alik at Practice This weighed in quickly. His take? It’s about “setting achievable goals and concluding the week with happiness if all things get done satisfactorily.”

Kasper agreed with Alik and added a new notion: Instead of using the phrase “achievable goals,” think in terms of arriving at a “happiness condition.”
U. K. property expert Mark Harrison thought that I had implied that “contentment” was a product of “status quo.” After re-reading the post, I might surmise the same thing. Yet while I have no problem living in the moment and being content in my circumstances, my wife would tell you that I’m not much of a status quo guy:-)

Mark points to a couple of things that indicate movement/action:

1. Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, leading to self-actualization.

As an organization/behavioral development consultant for more than 30 years, old Abe pops up on the radar screen regularly in my work. His theory is popular because it intuitively makes sense. Interestingly, it has never been scientifically validated. It has what is known as “face” validation. That means, “It makes sense to me and it fits.”

What’s important to take away is this: Self-actualization implies that each person has to consciously define what that means in order to achieve a sense of satisfaction. Different people will change or raise their sights according to who they are; but it’s a personal choice as well as a personal responsibility.

2. Earl Nightingale, Revised Harrison Version (RHV)

Earl Nightingale was one of the original personal growth/motivational writers and a producer of much multi-media material still in circulation today. He had a definition of success that is sensible: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” (Again implying movement). Mark offered a variation on a theme that probably fits the human condition equally as well. He suggests substituting the word “Happiness” for “Success.”

Try it out and see if it fits.

Check out Michael Lee Stallard’s comment to see how the Greeks used more than one word with more than one implication in order to look at “happiness.” Michael takes it further and notes that “feelings of happiness (emerge) when our needs for respect, recognition, belonging, and meaning are met.

But how about this?

He also points out that the degrees that we experience these forms of happiness tend to fluctuate from “season to season. It’s a mystery why this is so.”

Which I suppose is why that wise king, Solomon, noted that “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven”… (Nah, Bob Dylan didn’t do it first:-)

What can we take away today?

I think there are five things:

1. Happiness and satisfaction are individual choices. Therefore, you need to make purposeful decisions about what is satisfying. The consequence of not doing so is to walk through life dissatisfied and wondering why.

2. We need to be clear about what is satisfying before we accept a job. If you know what makes you tick, it’s a lot easier to research and investigate a potential employer. After all, they research and investigate you!

3. Employers can’t satisfy every individual’s personal wants. In fact, my experience has been that no one really expects that. What people do want from employers are respect, recognition, a sense of belonging, and meaningful work, as Mark stated. By the way, “meaningful work” means taking time to match talents and tasks–that’s an investment that’s both satisfying and profitable.

4. We humans see action as an important part of our lives. When we’re purposeful about it, we feel satisfied. When we’re unfocused, life tends to feel out of focus, too. Take it as a sign to re-visit your purpose.

5. There are times, or seasons, when life–personally and professionally–can seem like Autumn or Winter. Yet for thousands of years, Spring has come and something new–even unexpected–has begun to bloom. So it is with our lives. We don’t control the seasons; but we can control our response to them.

What would you like to add to the mix?

Steve Roesler of All Things Workplace is sitting in the CHO chair while Alex is on holiday.

Wow.

Three words we don’t often see in the same phrase. Yet they are so closely connected that I’m not sure they are inseparable.

Let’s spend the week together finding out how Happiness, Satisfaction, and Change are connected. We’ll start with a question:

Does Happiness at Work make a difference?

This month’s issue of Forbes magazine lists the 100 Best Companies to Work For. (The list is U.S.-based).

The #1 place to work?

Google.

According to Google co-founder Larry Page: “It’s common sense. Happy people are more productive.”

Is that really true?

Or are productive people happy as a result of being productive in their “Zone” (The Zone=the place where talent, passion, and a sense of service all converge to create a unique experience that transcends the ho-hum of grinding out a task).

Hmm. Perhaps what we are looking at is the idea of an internal perpetual motion machine: one that creates productive work experiences that lead to a sense of satisfaction that creates the feeling of happiness that makes us want to create another positive experie…. (You get the idea).

Did I see the word satisfaction sneak in there?

It’s time to check out some definitions so that we have a common starting point to take us through the series:

Happiness: good fortune; a state of well-being and contentment; a pleasurable or satisfying experience

Satisfaction: fulfillment of a need or want; the quality or state of being satisfied; contentment.

I’m feeling rather peaceful just typing the definitions.

What happens when we add Change?

Change: to make or become different; modify; making an essential difference often amounting to a loss of identity.

Whoa.

We spend many of our waking hours in workplaces filled with never-ending Change. Disequilibrium. Yet what we seem to seek is Happiness and Satisfaction whose basis, by definition, includes contentment.

How can we reconcile those?

We’ll make that our focus between now and Friday.

How do you reconcile–or integrate–Happiness, Satisfaction, and Change?

Steve Roesler of All Things Workplace is sitting in the CHO chair while Alex is on holiday.

Next week I’ll be absent from the blog – and present on some Austrian ski slopes trying out my new Ride snowboard. Can I get a Yaaaay!

While I’m gone, Steve Roesler of the All Things Workplace blog has promised to guest blog here. Over on his own blog, Steve’s been running a long series on change (he’s up to post 39 so far) and he’s promised to blog here about “Happiness, Satisfaction, and Change.” Thanks, Steve!

I currently see three major things that make people unhappy at work in companies all over the world: bad management, too much work and large organizational change, so I look forward to seeing Steve’s thoughts on happiness and change. He’ll be introducing himself further in a post Friday.

Meanwhile, I’ll be doing lots and lots of this:

Wheeeee!!!