Greetings my friends! Welcome to the new edition of The Message From the Road. What you may ask is The Message From the Road all about? The answer is, it’s an exciting new version of our popular weekly video blog that we have been producing since April of 2011. This weeks message is on the 3 Components to Happiness. I hope you will find it not only enjoyable, but also thought provoking.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen! How are you this beautiful day? As you can see it’s a spectacular day, isn’t it? How blessed I am to be out riding, enjoying this beautiful sunshine, blue skies, and white clouds. It just can’t get any better than this can it? I am one happy camper!
For some of you this might be your first time joining us, so let me welcome you to The Message From the Road. As I’m out riding my bike, up and down different parts of the country, like this beautiful Pacific Ocean, ideas pop into my head and I’ll stop and talk a little bit about them. Hopefully they are things that you will find interesting and ideas that might be food for thought as you move forward in your life or even into the next day or week.
As I was riding this morning the idea of happiness and success, which seems to be a somewhat recurring theme, kept coming to me. So I thought we could discuss the dichotomy between success and happiness.
It’s interesting when you look at this idea of happiness and you’ve got an external and internal driver. The external says, “When I’m successful I’ll be happy. When I’ve got all the money and I’ve got all the status, and I’ve got all the toys, then I’m going to be happy.” But the internal is a much stronger motivator for most people. Studies have shown that the people that are the most happy have some of the following components in their life.
1. They have a personal growth program, they’re excited about growing personally and they’re involved with other people that are growing. Consequently their outlook on life is just far better, more optimistic and full of excitement.
2. The other part is in their relationships. They have a stronger, healthier, and more fulfilling relationships. Why? Probably because they have a personal growth plan that’s in place and their relationships grow as they grow. They have a support system of like-minded friends and family.
3. They have a strong sense of community. Giving back and a sense of being involved with other people are vital to their happiness.
When we look at the cultures that are living the longest, that have the highest sense of happiness, where do we find them? We see them in Okinawa, where they have some of the longest living people on the planet. Denmark, that has one of the highest happiness ratings in the world. Bhutan, who has what they call, Gross Domestic Happiness. That’s how they are measuring the success of their communities, government, and country, on the happiness of the people.
Not one of those I just mentioned has had status or income as part of the driving force. So what’s going to make you happy the rest of your life? Is it the external things? You know, “When I get that car, I’m going to be happy. When I get that promotion I’m going to be happy. When I get married I’m going to be happy.”
Or is it taking a look at yourself and asking, “How can I grow? How can I increase my relationships to the point where they are energized and fulfilling? What am I doing to give back to my community, to the rest of the world, or to the rest of the country?”
So these are just some thoughts for you to consider as we move into 2014 and beyond. I hope that you have enjoyed todays message. Please pass it along if you believe it’s been valuable. Until next time…
Keep on growing, keep on learning and keep on leading! It’s a choice! Your choice and mine!
Question: How would you grade yourself on personal growth, relationships and community? How would you grade your Gross Domestic Happiness?
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