the road to lawyer happiness
I've covered the topic of happiness here from a few different angles:
- happiness is happening
- to your happiness!
- the money-happiness connection
- setting boundaries to avoid lawyer unhappiness
Over at his always-engaging (and nicely redesigned) blog bailey workplay, Chris Bailey points to a BBC article titled Why are Dutch children so happy? The piece investigates what earned the Netherlands the top spot on a roster of 21 industrialized countries featured in a recent UNICEF Child Wellbeing Report (pdf).
One factor cited is the Dutch parent-child relationship. Apparently, parents in the Netherlands are “very open and communicative” and “go out of their way to please” their children. So much so, that “there can be a lack of balance between the happiness of the child and that of the parent."
Reflecting on the article’s findings about happy Dutch kids, Bailey asks: “How much is our own happiness tied to having things go our way? Can there be happiness in our challenges and struggles?”
Cluing us in on how he’d answer his own questions, Bailey says: “Ask whether the pain of quitting your job might not be the first step toward finding your own soulful work. Remember that happiness sometimes means taking the hard and painful path.”
I think that there’s something to Bailey’s struggle-happiness connection. It often takes a jolt for us to see that we’ve been stagnant and unhappy in our work life and elsewhere. When that jolt comes – in the form of unexpected bad news, a business defeat or a financial downturn -- we realize that we’ve been stuck and need to make (and struggle through) a change for our own happiness and wellbeing.
Could not agree more. What I'm doing now is remembering Paulo Coehlo: "When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you achieve it."
Hi Arnie, thanks for link (and the compliment on the redesign). When I think about setbacks and their meaning to us, I'm reminded of how mountains look from an airplane. They're often barren at the top, but lush with growth at the bottom. We can learn at any point, whether it's the heights of our successes or the depths of our failures. But it's usually our lowpoints that bring us closer to our true humble selves and we discover a richness to our experiences. Sometimes it's pain that is the greatest teacher and guide to happiness.