We grow up thinking happiness is the target we want to reach and society has lots of advice on how to get there and what it is. The advertising media lives to portray happiness as the solution they are selling. Our parents certainly have input. Do we have the right idea about happiness?
When growing up I don’t recall my parents ever mentioning happiness and don’t know how important happiness was to them over surviving. My dad only had small indications that his success did lead to some thriving moments. Thriving is not a word he would have ever used. It would have sounded a little arrogant and too self-centered.
The Millennial generation seems to have a clear need to find happiness before they have what society would call success. They want happiness in the process. They want happiness now more than long hours and bigger paychecks. They take inventory of how they feel during their days.
I like to summarize every day with that was a good day. My goal for each day is to say at the end that it was good. Is this thriving or happiness? It is both and they interact supporting each other. Happiness is a biological process created by Mother Nature to support man’s need for self-improvement. In Nature, we are still early man and have behaviors necessary to ensure future generations.
Consider hunger and sex are not givens without the right hormones urging us and creating a desire or need. Consider male lizards will eat their young which is why females hide and bury their eggs. Male lizards will kill their young males to prevent competition with their female. This not foreign in the animal world as lions and bears will also kill young males.
So how have our two additional brains served us? We can harness Nature with building fire and shelters. We can build tools to help us hunt and cultivate crops. We can save time with labor saving devices. We can care for and protect our offspring by building communities and trading our labor for their education, health, and well being.
How do hunger, sex, learning, creating, caring, protecting, and exercise exist to help us survive and thrive? The brain stimulates hormones and neurotransmitters to induce us to certain behaviors and reward us for those behaviors. Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins are Nature’s miracles to help us feel happiness and build that happiness into enough behaviors that make us feel we are thriving.
Our parents knew that candy is what made us happy, but they made us go to school and told us to go outside and play and put us on athletic teams to get exercise. They bought us tools to help us learn and accumulate knowledge. They told us that college was a good goal to live a successful life. They hoped we would meet a good mate and raise children. Parents are Nature’s tools.
Happiness is the result of following Nature’s guidelines and thriving is the accumulation of the right behaviors. The right behaviors can be the results of the right daily habits and habits become the result of good time management. Planning our behaviors and putting them in time blocks becomes the way we ensure we have good days.
Happiness and thriving are not accidental but the result of good strategies. I could help you create happiness and a thriving life, but you could do the same for yourself. You could start having both today. The right thoughts, intentions, and behaviors stimulate the happiness brain chemicals we desire. Start planning today the behaviors of thriving and you will initiate happiness.
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As a Thriving Worker Consultant, I can engage in conversations with employers on how to begin the process of helping workers thrive and reach peak performance. It begins with a conversation to see how far an organization is willing to go to change the culture for workers.
Great practices for daily living can be learned with the Markap Series of Books. If your organization would like live presentations or Zoom meetings, they can be arranged for small to large groups.
The Markap Books:
Self-Leadership, Gratitude, Happiness, and Start Now
See Books on the Home Page
Contact me at Mark@markap1.com
Call for a Free 20-minute consultation. 442-288-3364
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