Different Ways To Be Happy

Being happy is always in your hands. A happy employee is more productive and
gives more than an unhappy employee. So let's look at some ways to up the happiness
factor.

1. Plan your week on Sunday night
Look at your work calendar and plan your week on Sunday night or Monday morning.
would include important meetings, deliverables, a brief summary of things that are
pending from last week and any tasks to be achieved during the week. Though this
might look like a time management tip, at the end of the week, on Friday night when
you re-visit what you have achieved over the last five days, the satisfaction is
immense.

2. Undertake activities that you are passionate about even though it might not be in
your job profile .Start an initiative that you would love to do irrespective of whether it is
required for you to do or not.
Send a daily newsletter to your team on the topics that most of them will be interested.
Do a presentation on the topic that you are passionate about.
Organise a small sports event for your team.
Call everyone in your team for a team coffee, breakfast or lunch break
Appreciate colleagues in your team or in a cross-functional team who did a great job
Write a poem on your team's achievements
Arrange a potluck lunch

3. Do not indulge in the blame game
If something goes wrong do not blame others blindly. If you commit a mistake, do not
hesitate to accept it. As Gautam Buddha said, there are three things we can't hide for long:
the sun, earth and the truth. Accepting your mistake gracefully will only make you look like
a true professional and also give you the satisfaction of not cheating.

4. Communicate more often in person
Utilise all the opportunities where you can speak to an individual in person rather than e-
mail or phone. But be aware of the other person's time and availability. Listening to a
positive answer from a person will give you more happiness than if it is done over the
phone or via e-mail.

5. Know what is happening at your workplace
Will this make a person happy? Truly, yes! Imagine a cricket team that doesn't know how
many runs to score to win a match? More than losing the game, the player will never be
interested or motivated to play well. Attend all meetings that are addressed by the CEO to
your immediate manager to know what is going to happen around you. It could be the
company's growth plan or your department's next big project. Jack Welch mentions in his
book Winning "every employee, not just the senior people, should know how a company is
doing." You will also get an extra edge if you are in a position to answer queries raised by
your peers or juniors. This is not just for the good reasons, but bad reasons as well. You do
not want to be the last employee to know if your company is laying off employees (in the
worst case, if you are the one who is on that list).

6. Participate in organisation- level activities
This could be as simple as spending one weekend for a corporate social responsibility
activity or attending a recruitment drive to help your HR team or arranging a
technical/sports event at the organisational level. Most of these events will be successful as
people do come on their own to contribute.

7. Have a hobby that keeps you busy and happy
Many people say their hobby is watching TV or listening to music or reading the newspaper.
These aren't hobbies, they are just ways of passing the time. Some hobbies are evergreen
and will keep you evergreen as well: dancing, painting, writing short stories, poems, blogs
and sharing your experiences.

8. Take up a sport
While choosing a sport make sure that there is physical activity. There is the danger of
becoming addicted to sports where there is less physical activity (like computer games,
chess, cards etc). Physical activity keeps a person healthy and happy. If you pick up one
sport well, you can represent your organisation in corporate sports event too.

9. Keep yourself away from office politics
Politics, as a practice, whatever its profession, has always been the systematic organization
of hatreds. -- Henry Brooks Adams Politics is everywhere and the office is no exception.
Playing politics might be beneficial but only for the short term. So the best thing to do is play
fair.

10. Wish and smile
More often than not, there are fair chances that the other person will smile back. This could
be your security guard at the gate, your receptionist, your office boy, your CEO or your
manager -- never forget to wish them and smile.

11. Volunteer for some activity "The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he
is capable of receiving."
� Albert Einstein said, do at least one activity without expecting anything in return. There is
no set frequency for this. This could be once in a day or once in a week or thrice in a week. It
could be as simple as making tea at the office for your colleague, helping a colleague who is
working in another department by using your skills, dropping your colleague at his door step
in your car, going to your manager or colleague to ask if there is any help you can extend,
contributing to technical or knowledge management communities in your organisation etc.

TIPS FOR GOOD INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

TRUST is a very important factor for all relationships. When trust is broken, it is the end of the relationship. Lack of trust leads to suspicion, suspicion generates anger, anger causes enmity and enmity may result in separation.

A telephone operator told me that one day she received a phone call. She answered, "Public Utilities Board." There was silence. She repeated, "PUB." There was still no answer. When she was going to cut off the line, she heard a lady's voice, "Oh, so this is PUB. Sorry, I got the number from my Husband's pocket but I do not know whose number it is."

Without mutual trust, just imagine what will happen to the couple if the telephone operator answered with just "hello" instead of "PUB".



NO POINTING FINGERS

A man asked his father-in-law, "Many people praised you for a successful marriage. Could you please share with me your secret?"

The father-in-law answered in a smile, "Never criticize your wife for her shortcomings or when she does something wrong. Always bear in mind that because of her shortcomings and weaknesses, she could not find a better husband than you."

We all look forward to being loved and respected. Many people are afraid of losing face. Generally, when a person makes a mistake, he would look around to find a scapegoat to point the finger at. This is the start of a war. We should always remember that when we point one finger at a person, the other four fingers are pointing at ourselves.

If we forgive others, others will ignore our mistake too.



CREATING PERFECT RELATIONSHIPS?

A person visited the government matchmaker for marriage, SDU, and requested "I am looking for a spouse. Please help me to find a suitable one." The SDU officer said, "Your requirements, please." "Oh, good looking, polite, humorous, sporty, knowledgeable, good in singing and dancing. Willing to accompany me the whole day at home during my leisure hour, if I don't go out. Telling me interesting stories when I need companion for conversation and be silent when I want to rest." The officer listened carefully and replied, "I understand you need television."

There is a saying that a perfect match can only be found between a blind wife and a deaf husband, because the blind wife cannot see the faults of the husband and the deaf husband cannot hear the nagging of the wife. Many couples are blind and deaf at the courting stage and dream of perpetual perfect relationship. Unfortunately, when the excitement of love wears off, they wake up and discover that marriage is not a bed of roses. The nightmare begins.



NO OVERPOWERING

Many relationships fail because one party tries to overpower another, or demands too much. People in love tend to think that love will conquer all and their spouses will change the bad habits after marriage. Actually, this is not the case. There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "It is easier to reshape a mountain or a river than a person's character."

It is not easy to change. Thus, having high expectation on changing the spouse character will cause disappointment and unpleasantness.

It would be less painful to change ourselves and lower our expectations.



RIGHT SPEECH

There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "A speech will either prosper or ruin a nation." Many relationships break off because of wrong speech. When a couple is too close with each other, we always forget mutual respect and courtesy. We may say anything without considering if it would hurt the other party.

A friend and her millionaire husband visited their construction site. A worker who wore a helmet saw her and shouted, "Hi, Emily! Remember me? We used to date in the secondary school." On the way home, her millionaire husband teased her, "Luckily you married me. Otherwise you will be the wife of a construction worker." She answered, "You should appreciate that you married me. Otherwise, he will be the millionaire and not you."

Frequently exchanging these remarks plants the seed for a bad relationship. It's like a broken egg - cannot be reversed.



PERSONAL PERCEPTION

Different people have different perception. One man's meat could be another man's poison. A couple bought a donkey from the market. On the way home, a boy commented, "Very stupid. Why neither of them ride on the donkey?" Upon hearing that, the husband let the wife ride on the donkey. He walked besides them. Later, an old man saw it and commented, "The husband is the head of family. How can the wife ride on the donkey while the husband is on foot?" Hearing this, the wife quickly got down and let the husband ride on the donkey.

Further on the way home, they met an old Lady. She commented, "How can the man ride on the donkey but let the wife walk. He is no gentleman."

The husband thus quickly asked the wife to join him on the donkey. Then, they met a young man. He commented, "Poor donkey, how can you hold up the weight of two persons. They are cruel to you." Hearing that, the husband and wife immediately climbed down from the donkey and carried it on their shoulders.

It seems to be the only choice left. Later, on a narrow bridge, the donkey was frightened and struggled. They lost their balance and fell into the river. You can never have everyone praise you, nor will everyone condemn you. Never in the past, not at present, and never will be in the future.

Thus, do not be too bothered by others words if our conscience is clear.



BE PATIENT

This is a true story which happened in the States. A man came out of his home to admire his new truck. To his puzzlement, his three-year-old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny paint of the truck. The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy's hands into pulp as punishment. When the father calmed down, he rushed his son to the hospital.

Although the doctor tried desperately to save the crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the boy's hands. When the boy woke up from the surgery & saw his bandaged stubs, he innocently said, "Daddy, I'm sorry about your truck." Then he asked, "but when are my fingers going to grow back?" The father went home & committed suicide.

Think about this story the next time someone steps on your feet or u wish to take revenge. Think first before u lose your patience with someone u love. Trucks can be repaired.. Broken bones & hurt feelings often can't. Too often we fail to recognize the difference between the person and the performance. We forget that forgiveness is greater than revenge.

People make mistakes. We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a rage will haunt us forever.





Before you take any action, H.A.L.T. Do not take any action when you are HUNGRY, ANGRY, LONELY, TIRED.