Five Keys to Happiness
March 6, 2010I read an article in the Harvard Business Review today, and in it the writer talked about Raymond Chambers, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria and how he walked away from the corporate world to do something that came from his heart. It’s a great article over all, but the thing that I took from it was the simplistic things he considers his keys to happiness:
1. Stay in the moment; there is no other time but the present.
2. Step back and become a spectator to your own thoughts; don’t get caught up in the drama, learn from it.
3. Worry about being loving not about being right.
4. Go out of your way to help anyone in need.
5. And finally, each morning, write down the things in your life you’re most grateful for.
As I read through these things, it occurred to me that these are the very things that we’re generally talking about here at 3 Shared Paths, and how these things have helped us in our journey. They aren’t new concepts. There’s no magic. It’s not anything that has to have a higher education to grasp and apply. And yet we tend to act as thought they are!
It’s really simplifying things down to the basics. Living a simple life. And that doesn’t mean you have to go live on a farm and raise all your own food and livestock. It just means let the things that really matter, matter. And let the things that don’t matter, not matter. Then be grateful for everything and everyone in your life.
I think I’ve just discovered World Peace! 
Seriously, oddly enough, it’s the simple things that are sometimes the hardest things to grasp because we as humans tend to want to complicate everything or bring drama to it that doesn’t have to be there. Believe me, I know. I’m a thinker, a processor and I have several friends who thrive off drama. I also have a friend who generally says to me at least once a year, “Why do you have to think about things so much??” And it’s never said with anything other than exasperation.
I’m working on this, though. I’ve not been willing to commit to things easily or readily of late if it looks like something that will complicate or otherwise make my life too busy. I’ve been calling the things I’m doing “engagements.” It’s that period of evaluation before I decide that I’m wedded to it. It’s helping me say yes to things I really want to continue, and no to things that really don’t work for me. Simplifying the decision making process.
I’m trying to let go of the outcome of things. If something happens, it does. If it doesn’t then perhaps it shouldn’t. This one is just not as easy as it sounds. I’m a planner and I want things to happen as planned, even if the way they happen doesn’t go exactly according to plan. But, I’m working on it.
These are seemingly small things, but they work for me. It’s my way of trying to stay in the moment, be a spectator and not get so caught up, and be loving to myself. I offer up my gratefulness every night. And I help people every single day at work, and am trying to teach my staff to take the high road in their dealings rather than focusing on blame.
Am I perfect? Far from it. But, I’m happier in my life now than I have ever been at any other point. Maybe that’s enough for now.
- Catherine
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