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Entrepreneurs and the Happiness Quotient

Guest post by: Sylvia Lafair

Article Overview: Entrepreneurs are seen as the happiest people in the world. But are they truly happy, making their own hours, working for themselves? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, if you were happy? What does the word "happy" mean for you. Happiness is fluid, it is a process. Learn about the essence of real happiness in "Don't Bring It to Work" (Jossey Bass).

Entrepreneurs and the Happiness Quotient

Entrepreneurs are seen as the happiest people in the world. And yet.... And yet... those I have coached tell me they know it is vital to keep up appearances of gusto and bravado for the world. After all, what can be better than working for yourself? What can be better than setting your own hours (even if for most entrepreneurs it is a 24-7 world)? What can take the place of the excitement and challenge of changing straw into gold day after day after day?

STOP: have you ever stopped long enough to ask yourself if you are happy? Really happy? Have you ever stopped long enough to ask yourself why you are working to build your company? Have you ever stopped long enough to ask your family how they see the sacrifices and the times without you?

START: to look at what it means to be happy. Is it the opposite of being unhappy? What drives you to get up in the morning and get going? And if you are really happy developing your business can you define what it is that you really, I mean really want to accomplish when the day is done.

STOP: thinking about happiness in its static state. Happiness is fluid, it is a process. It is hard to capture, like a beautiful butterfly it flits from moment to moment and has a fleeting effect. When it flies away are you left with despair and depression or enough resolve to keep going and find it again?

START: learning that happy people practice happiness. It is a form of strength training. You do it and do it and then one day you see how much better you look and feel. You practice happiness by thinking about others. You practice happiness by extending yourself toward others and doing at least one "good deed" a day.

STOP: thinking about happiness as only living in the moment. It is more complex than the latest motivational book. It is connecting the past and the present to make a positive future. Kids live only in the moment; adults connect life into a seamless whole.

START: sharing the good of what you produce, and more importantly who you are, what you are learning about life from your adventure as an entrepreneur. Then in your job as chief organizer, cheerleader, chef and bottle washer you can learn and teach others about what really matters, that is the essence of true happiness.

Life is a package deal. In "Don't Bring It to Work" you can learn about the essence of real happiness, where you learned how to relate to others, where you learned how to handle disappointments, and learned to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again when the dark days appear. And if you didn't learn the lessons of happiness when you were a kid, please remember the words of author Tom Robbins "It's never too late to have a happy childhood"!

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Article Tags: Coaching, Dont Bring It to Work, Happiness



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Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.
Re: The secret to happiness - Happiness comes from within. We choose whether we want to be happy or not. Circumstances can influence our feelings, but in the end, it's up to us how we deal with our circumstances, positively or negatively. I admire anyone who can stay strong and be happy through adversity. There will always be challenges that we face, but I believe that if we face them with our heads held high, the odds of overcoming them are much greater. This reminds me of the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness." Happiness spelled wrong for a reason. One of Will Smith's greatest movies. I encourage you all to watch it as it's very inspiring.
Re: Are you really happy? - So true Yinka. Happiness comes from within. MichelleJ
Re: The secret to happiness - Happiness is working on the job you love. I forgot who said this, "give a man the job he loves doing and he will ever work again in his life"
CEOs and Email - Slaves? - I wonder if the emails they are responding to are filtered thru their assistants first 'cos they seem to spend a lot of their off hours responding to them. True they are successful but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay that price. I'd be interested to know what's the in the typical day planner of Entrepreneurs on the Forum. Entrepreneurs are a different breed than Paid Employees- so it would be interesting to view the contrast.


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