Do you have to LIKE Happy to DO Happy?

We are living with the assumption that everyone wants to be happy.  We know where assumptions take us, and I  am not convinced that’s true.

I think we have fallen out of love with Happy!

We can respect our own intelligences and wisdom by clarifying what we already know.

We know that to feel Happy we need to be Knowing, Doing and Being HAPPY

Knowing
Some tasks are bigger and dirtier than others.

To combat this, Brain Tracey, world leading psychologist has taught us how to Eat our Frogs first thing in the morning.

David Allen has given us ‘Getting things done’

We all know SMART and may even have been introduced to TEFCAS.

So let’s agree that we have enough strategies for Success already.

When it comes to how to approach tasks and to do lists, we have the ‘KNOWING’

Let’s skip to the Being

Unless you have been living in a cloud (step away from your computer!) you will be aware of the importance of self-awareness. Every day through our media channels we are being bombarded with shared wisdom on how to be; who we are, what are values our, our purpose our personal brand, motivators, inspirations and even energy managers.

When it comes to BEING, we are

So it’s the Doing?
I can understand us avoiding the doing if it’s a mean and dirty task we need to do. Maybe its end of year accounts or finally clearing out the attic or taking your car for its NCT.

We can get distracted from our knowing and our being because it’s just something we don’t like to do.

What about Doing Happy – do you have to like it to do it?

In the last 25 years – we have been exposed to so much research on happiness.
We know all we need to know about how great it is for us – how it improves us mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The science is in!

Why don’t we use our knowing and being to DO Happy?

I think it’s because we DON’T like Happy as much as we like other emotions. Happy doesn’t give us the high emotional charge, the adrenalin kick that other emotions like fear and worry do.
We have spent so many years stressed that we have become addicted to the adrenal gland release of hormones (cortisol) that we get when we are anxious and fearful and unhappy.
Happy just doesn’t cut it anymore.

We have stuck it on a to-do list somewhere and associated it with other things we don’t like to do so it simply doesn’t get done.

We lie awake at night reflecting on our levels of success from our day –we check the list and notice, flip, didn’t get to the happy task – no worries – I will put that back on the list for tomorrow or when I have more time!

If we truly, madly deeply want to be happy then we have to make it our business to DO Happy

Time to LOVE Happy and put it top of your list again

Summer time is the time to Know, Do and Be Happy
It gives us longer days, better weather, more opportunity to get our natural happy hormones circulating. Nature is conspiring with us to do happy during summer months.

Get your Do Happy head on
Re-introduce happy to your emotional self-awareness. You can build it slowly ,start by doing things and noticing how they make you feel not just how they get things done. Pay special attention to the ones that satisfy and uplift your spirits at the same time

3 simple tips for doing happy all year around

• Get yourself a ‘holiday book’ even if you are having a staycation
• Try some different food – we have excellent international cuisine on our door step, you don’t need to go to Spain or Italy to enjoy ‘holiday food’
• Listen to some Summer songs – they are especially upbeat

Whatever you need to DO – go DO it and DO Happy more
Start a Summer romance with Happy, you will learn to Love it and it may last a lot longer than you think

Author : Maureen Hewitt, PSG