Thursday, June 07, 2007

5 Days of Happiness, Part 4


The philosopher Voltaire once said “The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease. Certainly modern medicine has advanced since the days of Voltaire to the point to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the very act of laughing relaxes us and reduces our exposure to problems associated with high blood pressure, strokes, arthritis, and ulcers. Because research has suggested that distressing emotions such as stress, anger, and depression can lead to heart disease, laughter can help alleviate these emotions and hedge against heart disease.

Furthermore, the benefits of humor reflect in social situations. Researcher Fabio Sala, part of the Hay Group, found that executives who used humor more than their counterparts were perceived better, using humor 17.8 times per hour; whereas it was found that executives who were ranked average used humor 7.5 times per hour. While positive and neutral humor was the most used, some negative humor was used also. Humor can also be seen to have benefits in negotiation situations.

The average child laughs about 300 times per day: How many adults do you know that laugh this much in every 24-hour period? In a work environment that is in constant change for most of us, humor can be wonderful, a force-multiplying phenomena in our work lives. When I worked in the wireless industry as a supervisor/analyst in receivables management we dealt with a high stress load mostly because we handled customers who escalated because they were displeased with their situation, the customer service representative which they were working with, or something else. The team that I was on that dealt with these situations with a humorous approach: While often a cynical one it was a differential that helped us keep our sanity after being constantly abused by irrational customers complaining about some aspect of their wireless service.

Echoes of this can be found in most every workplace environment. A successful leader in any of these environments is able to keep the humor with them while spreading humor with others. Not only will this offer you the opportunity to be held in high regards by your peers and others, it will also help to offer a rounded edge to what could be otherwise stressful situations.

Some people will go through their lives living with the understanding that happiness is the end result when, rather, happiness is the means to the end that you seek. Imagine the man or woman that is constantly, in a Machiavellian sort of way, striving for that little piece of happiness. We sacrifice those things which we have today, here and now, for that piece of a pie that we want to have tomorrow: Expensing the moment for the promise of something tomorrow. Allow happiness to be your method for achieving those things in life you get. Studies have consistently shown that happy people are more apt to be successful. Happiness begets success; success does not necessarily beget happiness.

How do you become happier? Here are a few pointers:

  • Learn to balance work and play. Maybe you are a person who lives to work; maybe you’re a person who works to live. Either way, there are activities which we each would describe as work or play. With things in moderation, the successful individual learns to balance work and play. There are caveats and exceptions to this rule; Donald Trump believes that if you are in the right line of work “play” is not necessary

  • You can only spread yourself so thin before you’re no good for yourself or anyone else. Knowing your limits and pushing yourself enough past those limits that you don’t cause damage is integral. Successful people are often integral parts to other people’s lives, organizations and the like: If you commit yourself too much you are risking that you will be able to contribute less to those things and people that you value—and those people and things that value you.

  • Laugh and smile more. Laugh at yourself. Laugh at the world. Remember that it takes 37 muscles to frown and 22 muscles to smile. Smiling is much easier and much more beneficial.

  • Surround yourself with people who are positive. Negative people can’t necessarily bring you down, but having negative influences contribute in your life can only, ultimately cause you to take on those negative aspects of their influence as well. Birds of a feather flock together.

  • If you are someone who tends to bottle emotions up, not get things out into the open, avoids issues, or has problems letting your thoughts and feelings be known, learn to practice self-assertion techniques. Sooner or later not asserting yourself will catch up with you and you will be prevented from growth and progress.

  • Learn to relax and cope. While happiness can bring with it traits of self confidence and such, emotions such as panic and despair will not. When things get to be too much: Relax; because a situation can only best you if you allow it to do so.

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