The research shows happy people have better physical, mental and social health. There are certainly lots and lots of benefits to being happy and so there are thousands of books written about the subject, courses you can go on and blogs you can read. (a personal favourite of mine is ‘Goodness Gracious Me‘)

But have you considered what the pressure to be happy does to people? Todd Kashdan suggests that the pressure to be happy makes people less happy. “Organising your life around trying to become happier, making happiness the primary objective of life, gets in the way of actually becoming happy.” he says. You know what it’s like – the more you search for something the more you can’t find it!

So instead of working so hard to be happy – the research shows that you should try some other strategies:

• Pursue a life of meaning and purpose
• Be grateful
• Be curious

That’s right – one of the most reliable and overlooked keys to happiness is cultivating and exercising our innate sense of curiosity. If you’ve got an inquiring mind, it’s possible to turn the most boring situations into something meaningful.

Gallup have looked into this topic and reported that their research conducted with more than 130,000 people from 130 nations, identified two factors that had the strongest influence on how much enjoyment a person experienced in a given day: “being able to count on someone for help” and “learned something yesterday.”

This is really exciting news! – because I think we can easily foster a culture of helpful relationships and learning in our organisations!! Do you agree? It makes me get goosebumps thinking about the exciting consequences of everyone being genuinely curious, grateful and happy at work every day!

Talk about being curious – I’m really curious about the challenges you are facing at work. If I understand these, I’m going to be able to help you so much better and help you to overcome your challenges.

Please click here and tell me in 1 minute or less what your greatest challenges or problems are.

Have a successful week!