Tweet

Life, Business and the Pursuit of Happiness: Do More of What You Do Best!

Guest post by: Lynda-Ross Vega

Article Overview: Why do some people thrive in the work they do while others seem so miserable? The answer to this all-important question has everything to do with who we are as people, and what makes us different from each other. By focusing on areas of natural talent, skill and passion-not just for what our businesses do, but what we do in our businesses-we can strengthen the bottom line and experience more happiness on a day-to-day basis.

Life, Business and the Pursuit of Happiness: Do More of What You Do Best!

Why do some people thrive in the work they do while others seem miserable?

Throughout my years as a business coach and a consultant, this question always fascinated me. On a practical level, I always tried to place people in the “right” job for them. But uncovering “right” was a trial and error process of soliciting input from people about what they wanted and then observing their performances.

It wasn’t until my partner Gary and I developed the Perceptual Style Assessment that I discovered a reliable way to help people match their talents with the tasks at hand. Together, we discovered a natural correlation between a given person’s innate abilities and talents—as revealed by their Perceptual Style, and a number of associated factors—and where that person naturally excelled in work and business.

Over the past 30+ years of working together—coaching businesses and teams ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startup entrepreneurs—Gary and I discovered an organic connection not only between happiness and these innate abilities, but between unhappiness and the failure to put these abilities to work.

There are two major reasons people experience a disconnect between their natural abilities and their day-to-day actions: first, by focusing on developing what they don’t do well, and second, failing to develop what they do.

We all have a lot of forces in our lives that encourage us to try harder at what we don’t do well. You know the saying: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It’s all well and good to demonstrate persistence and stick-to-it-iveness, but too often, we spend our time trying to get better at what doesn’t come naturally to us, rather than developing what it is we actually do well.

For the most part this arises from good intentions on the part of people and institutions that want the best for us – our friends and family and our schools and employers: they want to help us to become well-rounded human beings. The paradox is that in getting us to pour our energy into improving skills that don’t come naturally, we often push our true talents into the background. This creates a lot of frustration and unhappiness for most people.

Which leads to our second major factor: when people get so focused trying to acquire new skills, they end up undervaluing those things for which they are naturally gifted. People fail to appreciate what they are able to do easily and assume it isn’t anything special. Nothing is farther from the truth. But all too often, the attitude towards gifts and talents seems to be “If I can do this really easily, it must not be worth anything.” It seems to be part of human condition to believe that if it isn’t “hard work”, there isn’t value.

Based on these two factors, it’s not hard to see why so many people wind up stuck in jobs they don’t enjoy, or wearing hats in their businesses that really don’t fit who they are.

The simple fact is, people are happiest and most satisfied in life when they are engaged in actions and activities that draw upon their natural capacities, skills, and abilities.

Our experience over the years has shown us that people who consciously develop their natural capacities experience more joy, satisfaction, and success in life. Our motto is “Do more of what you do best”. It is at the core of our philosophy of strengths-based coaching – building on what each individual naturally excels at.

Related Articles
  Pursuit of Leadership Happiness
  Chris Gardner Pursuit of Happiness
  The Key to Happiness
  The three types of happiness - are you really happy?
  What Is The Pursuit Of Happiness?
  Pursuit of Happiness
  Ten Tips to Help You in Your Pursuit of Happiness
  TOP 10 HAPPY QUOTES
  Its Not Over There
  TOP 10 WAYS TO CULTIVATE HAPPINESS
  Happiness Is A Decision
  Oops!
  How Do You Define Success?
  Chris Gardner Book
  The State Of Happiness
  Moments of Professional Happiness
  Why are Lottery Winners So Unhappy? - The Real Story about Happiness
  Happiness
  Leadership Lessons: Automatic Happiness
  Marketing Happiness

Article Tags: business, happiness, Perceptual Styles Theory, psychology, work
Referred by: http://www.MichelePW.com



Related Forum Posts
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.
The Second Life Platform - Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: The Second Life Platform - [quote="JBunion":fhe23fsu]Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.[/quote:fhe23fsu] Hi JBunion, I've heard about the site. So are you currently a member? And more importantly, have you tried to open a store front in that virtual world?
Re: Charge what you're worth - [quote="Tami Szabo":292ze3jd]People will pay you what you ask. Very few will ever up the price. You are the one who decided what you are worth. The key is that we believe our services are worth the price we are asking.[/quote:292ze3jd] Hi Tami, You're absolutely right. In "Think and Grow Rich", Jessie B. Rittenhouse says "For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial's hire Only to learn, dismayed , That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid" (Napoleon Hill 35). I think the same can be said when setting prices on eBay or Craigslist, especially when people are trying to haggle you.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Steps For Starting A Small Business

SEO and the Entrepreneur

Why Small Businesses Don't Survive

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.