Secret of happiness

In 2001 there were four books on happiness. There are now over 4000. Clearly there is a lot to learn about how to be happy.I cannot recall which of them made the point I want to discuss today, and perhaps it doesn’t matter. Basically it said that one aspect of happiness was where we stood in terms of time. If we were always looking back to our memories and our greatest happiness came from our past, then we were at risk of missing the moment. If on the other hand, we were only focused on the happiness of the present, there was a risk that we would drift along, and our happiness would be a function of what happened to us rather than what we deliberately made happen. On the other other hand (I’m beginning to sound like an economist here), if you were focused on the future, you could live your life in suspended happiness, missing out on the pleasures and achievements in the present. And if you laid all the economists in the world end to end, they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion.The answer, it seems, is to have the right balance of present and future. The past is gone and not coming back, it doesn’t exist any more. Be conscious and mindful in the present, and in particular practice gratitude for what you have. At the same time, have plans and ambitions for the future that create a sense of possibility, because potential and upside always energises us.What’s the application to business? I’ve been working with some owners who have been doing it tough in their sectors. And hard though it is, I have been encouraging them to lift their sights from the teeth-gritting, shoulder-squaring getting through this mindset to include a sense of what is possible. In fact I’d go further:

• Face squarely the reality of today’s problems – don’t try to hide or varnish the issues
• Where you have successes, count them and be grateful for them. Don’t count them as the whole answer, but don’t dismiss them on those grounds either. Call them progress
• Have a strategy that gets you out of this, whether it’s focus on marketing, development of a new product, new segments or whatever. And make sure you put time and effort into getting your team excited about that possibility. You do that by setting reachable goals around it and breaking it down into tasks – and then celebrating whatever progress you make

Jim Collins talks in Good to Great about the Stockdale paradox: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”I’d turn it round: confront reality, but work your plan to prevail.