The meaning of life is a life with meaning

Don't compare your insides with other people's outsides

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realise they were big things.” Kurt Vonnegut

See life as it is, but focus on the good bits

If you can't change it, change the way you think about it

It helps to know what you're looking forward ro

Find time to lose yourself in what you love

Happiness ...

“The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart." Thich Nhat Hanh

There's more to life when you stop and notice

Be active, relax, rest, repeat daily

International Day of Happiness at work

Today is International Day of Happiness so I thought I'd write about what that means for me here at work.

For me happiness at work is important and generally speaking I am happy at work, that's not to say everything goes well and that there aren't any problems or frustrations because there are.

For me happiness at work is about the attitude I adopt to my work and to those around me. By 'those around me' I mean those within my immediate team, my day to day colleagues; those from other departments, agencies and organisations and last, but not least, our customers.

Within my team I think over the years we've tried to look after one another, we've demonstrated that we care about how each other are, at work but also in our life outside work. We accept that we're all human and have lives to live as well as work to do. In acknowledging this we can give each other some support and care to help us get through the day, the week or whatever it is that's making the present difficult for any of us. In short we try to care for each other. We've got better at this the longer we've been working together. Admittedly part of the way we do this is to share our frustrations, discontent and disappointments within our work and this might sometimes seem like moaning - is moaning about being happy? Well no, not intrinsically, but moaning to one another for me is about our sense of belonging in our team, about our shared understanding of what we believe is right and a chance to share and get rid of some of our frustrations.

The important thing here is that we care about our work, we care about what we do and how we do it - and that's often why we moan! So we do moan but we care an awful lot and these two things bring us together as a team. It's important to us that we deliver a good service, that we do the right thing and that the people we work with know that we care. Because we do. This reminds me of a quote attributed to Buddha which says "Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others." 

So yes, I'm generally happy at work despite all the frustrations that I feel. I'm happy at work because I care about what I do. I get the chance to show my care, kindness, compassion and love for others and I get the chance to share that with my immediate team and with wider colleagues. I get to be involved with people and projects that demonstrate their care, kindness compassion and love on a regular basis and that's refreshing, inspiring and life affirming. So yes, I'm happy at work.

When we're together everything's better

If you want to feel good, do good

Be Happy

Ten Keys to Happier Living

Ten Keys to Happier Living - Guidebook from Action for Happiness

It's International Day of Happiness

"On this first International Day of Happiness, let us reinforce our commitment to inclusive and sustainable human development and renew our pledge to help others. When we contribute to the common good, we ourselves are enriched. Compassion promotes happiness and will help build the future we want."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the International Day of Happiness, 20 March 2013

The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal

Speaking at the High Level Meeting on "Happiness and Well-Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm" convened during the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that the world “needs a new economic paradigm that recognizes the parity between the three pillars of sustainable development. Social, economic and environmental well-being are indivisible. Together they define gross global happiness.”  The meeting was convened at an initiative of Bhutan, a country which recognized the supremacy of national happiness over national income since the early 1970's and famously adopted the goal of Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product.

The General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 66/281 of 12 July 2012 proclaimed 20 March the International Day of Happiness recognizing the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives.

The United Nations invites Member States,  international and regional organizations, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations and individuals, to observe the International Day of Happiness in an appropriate manner, including through education and public awareness-raising activities.

'The Pig of Happiness' by Edward Monkton

Matthieu Ricard: The habits of happiness