People find me strange because I cycle to work each day across the desert.
Past a deer park, an ostrich reserve and through a Bedouin camel farm.
Over an hour each way in quite ‘warm’ conditions…
One of its many benefits is the time I have to listen to podcasts.
This week, I focussed on The High Performance Podcast which offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of high-achieving, successful individuals.
In it, organisational psychologist Professor Damian Hughes and sporting anchor-man Jake Humphrey share the non-negotiable behaviours the remarkable individuals they interview employed to get them to the top of their fields...and keep them there.
The line-up is stunning with military, sporting, performing and all-round legends, sharing their lessons and experiences.
Given most of my own work is in the high performance and detailed life success sphere – creating healthy, prosperous and most importantly happy people, is fascinating.
According to Shawn Achor in a TED Talk watched by almost 24 million, a focus on happiness (or at least positive mindset and emotion) leads to less burnout, less staff turnover, greater resilience, superior productivity, greater feelings of security, more sales, less costs and greater employee and corporate success.
Importantly, it also leads to greater engagement or ‘additional discretionary effort’ exerted into an endeavor – be that your career, your marriage/parental relationship, your community or yourself.
A pioneer in the field of positive psychology, Martin Seligman put forward an interesting theory of well-being in 2012.
This shows you can increase flourish by increasing Positive Emotion, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning and Achievement (called the PERMA model).
A large body of evidence shows things such as success or money alone don’t make people happy but happiness (driven via an internal positive mindset) is normally a precursor to money or success.
While genetics are responsible for our general PERMA settings (we all move up and down within our pre-set range) - we can all exert substantial control over the way our brain processes information (responsible for 90% of happiness).
Genes matter, but so do our thoughts and actions.
This means our intentional, effortful activities have a powerful effect on how happy we are over and above our general settings and the good or bad circumstances we find ourselves in.
Not only is this critically important for our own well-being, but those we interact with in life and business.
This has huge implications on things such as how we raise our children. I'm reminded about Jordan Petersons - 12 rules of life and in particular, rules 5 and 11:
Rule 5: Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
Rule 11: Do not bother children when they are skateboarding.
Here are some strategies/tactics for moving your internal PERMA settings:
Broken rituals (intentionally considered, precisely scheduled and consistently practiced strategies) or an uneven cadence generally impact where people sit on the dial between disorder, languishing, moderate and flourishing.
Happy resources
My top books on happiness
Helping people find ‘flow’ or increasing cognisance around the intersection between managing your capital (which can include time, emotion, energy and money) and the overlap this has with what is important to you, is my own big interest for the future of the planning profession.
Talking about financial capital and money…
Ben Carlson wrote about 10 things you shouldn’t care about as an investor.
It’s never been easier to pay attention to everything that’s going on with the markets, economy, individual companies or your own portfolio.
It’s more important than ever to filter out the stuff you shouldn’t care about as an investor.
Finally, I’d like to share another of Ben Carlson’s blogs. It’s about the notion of buying time – perhaps the most important part of your capital.
What’s the result of better productivity, money and efficiency if not to have more time?
This piece shares three ways to buy yourself more time:
A question for you:
What daily ritual underpins your perfect day? Where can you improve?
This week's meditations
The path to a more positive mindset and a more enjoyable day (for everyone) in 8 easy steps...
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Have a great weekend and enjoy the ‘light’ reading!
Shawn Achor and The happy secret to better work
Jordan Petersons - 12 rules of life
Dan Harris' panic attack on live television from ABC News
Ben Carlson: 10 things you shouldn’t care about as an investor and how much is your time worth?