1. Be Happy
By Andrea Groenewald

2. Wish #1: Wealth or Happiness

3. Wish #2: Success or Happiness

4. Wish #3: Fame or Happiness

5. Wish #4: Status or Happiness

6. Wish #5: Attractiveness or Happiness

7. Wish #6: Sex or Happiness

8. Wish #7: Health or Happiness

9. Wish #8: Enlightenment or Happiness

10. Wish #9: Authenticity or Happiness

11. Wish #10: Love or Happiness

12. Study conducted in 2003 (Diener &
Oishi)
Researchers interviewed 9,000 people
on the importance of happiness
against values such as health, wealth
& attractiveness. Happiness came first,
even beating out heaven by 13%.

13. Happiness is a Universally accepted
Goal!

14. In other research we learn that Happiness
leads to:
Higher Income

Superior work outcomes including

increased productivity & higher quality of
Work
More satisfying and longer Marriages


15. Happiness also Leads To:
More friends, stronger social support &

richer social interactions
More energy, increased activity and flow
 
Better physical health including a bolstered
immune system, lowered stress levels &
less pain
Longer life
 
Even inspires people to want to serve &
benefit other

16. What makes us Happy?
• Self Knowledge & Acceptance
• Having a Purpose for your Life
• Being part of Something Bigger than Yourself
• Living according to your Core Values
(Authenticity)
• Healthy Relationships (Love)
• Laughter – Norman Cousins, 1977
• Thankfulness & Gratitude

17. Barriers To Happiness
1. Spoiled Child Syndrome
2. Mental Filter & Overgeneralizing
3. Unrealistic Expectations
4. Taking things Personally
5. Reacting to people & situations rather
than Responding
6. All or Nothing Viewpoint

18. Happiness in the Workplace
Five Alarm Bulletin:
The Workplace has Changed!

19. Landscape of the (new) Workplace
• On average, workers will spend 90,000
hours over the course of their life, working
• Due to current economic realities, workers
are expected to have higher productivity
and output, with less resources
• Stress is at an all time high
• Clinical depression & anxiety is costing
companies & government billions of dollars

20. Predictors of Happiness in the Workplace
How much you Enjoy your job
   
Feeling your work has a Purpose
Confidence in your ability to do your job
Matching of Personal Values with
Corporate Values
Trust in your Employer & Direct Reports
 
Recognition & Appreciation for your work

21. More Predictors of Happiness in the
Workplace
Your ability to Manage Stress – 80% of

physical illnesses are caused by stress
Your ability to Manage your Thoughts

and Attitudes

22. Managing Stress
Satisfiers

Relaxation Techniques

Coping with Uncertainty – WW II study

Distinguishing between what you can

change and what needs to be managed
Stop Labelling – Srikumer Rao


23. Great minds manage their Thoughts
“A man is what he thinks
about all day long.”
~Emerson~

24. “We become what we
think about”
~Earl Nightengale~

25. “The greatest discovery of my
generation is that a human
being can alter his life by
altering his attitude of
mind” ~William James~

26. Conclusion: We can change the
way we feel and experience life &
work by changing the way we
think!

27. What if we could create our own
Happiness?

28. “I am the happiest man alive. I
have that in me that can convert
poverty to riches, adversity to
prosperity, and I am more
vulnerable than Achilles; fortune
hath not one place to hit me.”
~Sir Thomas Brown~

29. We can Synthesize our own Happiness
• Experience Simulator in Prefrontal Cortex
(Ice Cream Flavours/Lottery)
• The Impact Bias, “the tendency to
overestimate the hedonic impact of
future events.” (Purchases)

30. Synthesized Happiness
Harvard’s, Dan Gilbert’s Research using the
“Free Choice Paradigm.”
• Monet Prints
• Monet Prints with amnesia patients
They change their hedonic reaction, not
just perception or rationalization!

31. Examples of Synthesized
Happiness
“I don’t have one minute regret. It
was a glorious experience.”
Moreese Beckham – Upon release of 37
years confined to a Louisiana Prison for
a crime he was exonerated from based
on DNA evidence.

32. “I believe it turned out for the best.”
Harry S. Langerman – turned down a
MacDonald’s Franchise because his
brother wouldn’t lend him the $3,000
stating, “You idiot, no one eats
hamburgers.” Two months later, Ray Crock
bought the franchise and became the
wealthiest man in America.

33. “I’m happier than I would have
been with the Beatles.”
Pete Best, original drummer for
the Beatles who, not by his choice,
was excluded from the band and
replaced by Ringo.

34. “I’ve been able to enjoy love and
relationships at a deeper level than
ever before.”
Shania Twain – After the double
betrayal of her music producer &
husband having an affair with her
best friend & confident.

35. “I am the happiest man alive. I
have that in me that can convert
poverty to riches, adversity to
prosperity, and I am more
vulnerable than Achilles; fortune
hath not one place to hit me.”
~Sir Thomas Brown~

36. “There is nothing good or bad, but
thinking makes it so.”
~William Shakespeare~

37. I don’t wholeheartedly agree with
Shakepeare’s quote but we can see
from the research that how and what
we think about, especially as we
rehearse or create scenarios in our
minds, clearly affects our mood, our
stress levels, our attitudes and will
ultimately affect our behaviour.

38. Benefits of being Happy in the Workplace
• Happy People work better with
others
• Happy People are more creative
• Happy People fix problems instead
of complaining about them
• Happy People have more energy
• Happy People are more optimistic

39. More Benefits of being Happy in the
Workplace
• Happy People are way more motivated
• Happy People get sick less often
• Happy People learn faster
• Happy People worry less about making
mistakes and as a result make less of
them
• Happy People make better decisions

40. What choices can you make to:
1. Improve your Personal
Happiness?
2. Improve your Happiness at
Work?

41. Thank You & Be Happy!