TUESDAY, 29 JUNE 2018
“Happiness is not a reward. It’s a requirement.”
… Insight early on Thursday evening on the way to the subway station, at the end of a thought about exactly when I worked out how important a perception of happiness is for success. My conclusion was that I started thinking that way about ten years ago, but that I didn’t truly realise the seriousness of the matter until a few years ago.
Happiness is, in other words, not a luxury, as I believed for many years, but an essential ingredient in the journey to success. A happy person is a productive person – one who wants to reach for things and take chances. The happy person finds the inspiration to act. The happy person has the energy to take on challenges. The happy person is motivated. The happy person believes in himself and what he can accomplish. The happy person believes in a happy future.
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What if you don’t consider yourself happy at the present moment?
It is crucial that you change this perception. Force yourself to smile more (scientifically proven to affect your mind – see Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow); change things in your immediate environment to remove resistance to a perception of happiness; identify things that affect your senses negatively – what you taste, what you look at, what you feel on your skin, what you smell, what you hear, and change what you can.
A perception that you’re happy is to a large extent something you can create. You can indeed manipulate yourself to feel happier, and there is scientific proof it doesn’t even matter that you know you are trying to manipulate yourself.
Considering how important a perception of happiness is for what you do and how you see your chances of success, even your ability to identify opportunities, the importance of trying harder to feel happy cannot be overstated.
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Last thought: Your happiness must be a tough bastard, not a fragile child. Happiness must be your hard shell, not your delicate heart that can be shaken at any moment.
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