Happiness on Purpose

What is happiness?  I'm not talking about "I just had chocolate" happy.  I am talking about an inner happiness that endures.  I have gone to high school reunions over the years and am always surprised at who seems happy and who does not.  As the reunions have continued, more and more of my classmates seem unhappy, or are getting divorced, or are alienated from their children.  I promise you not one single person in the WACOHI class of 1983 graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced or raising children who would become esrtanged from them.  And yet, so many of them have implemented that strategy.  And why?  I believe it is because they didn't keep the purpose of their lives front and center.

Fortunately, I think I am in a good place for the first time in several years.  But I am still "drifting" a little.  Having a clear purpose I believe is essential to happiness and still, at age 46, I don't think I have figured that out yet.  So how do I get there?  I am not sure.

I believe some of the principles that I teach my staff on a daily basis may help in my search for purpose and happiness.  For example, I constantly preach that they shouldn't take shortcuts.  If you study the root causes of business disasters, mine included, time and time again I think you will find a predisposition toward things that offer immediate gratification.  I think that if you look at personal lives through the same lens, you will find the same principles apply and show an ironic pattern:  people often allocate fewer and fewer resources to the very things that they once said meant the most to them.

Another step to happiness is to be humble. I constantly teach my reps to ask questions and then just listen. For the longest time, I thought that only smarter people had something to teach me.  Then I recognized that I was limiting my learning opportunities.  Also, I think you can only be truly humble if you feel good about yourself and want to help others.  When people put others down, their behavior is almost always a product of lack of self-esteem.

Last of all, I believe that you shouldn't measure your life by how far you have climbed the corporate ladder or by how much money you make, but rather by how many people's lives you have affected in a positive manner. 

So, I have a ways to go, but I am committed to spending time regularly to figure out what my true purpose in life is.  I think that will be a giant step in finding happiness.  And ironically, I think I should start with the principles I teach my staff everyday.