Don’t Chase Happiness

It has been a great week to finish 2018 with some fabulous coaching sessions and a wonderful Masterclass for the PDW group. What a great company this is, and I am so pleased to be working with them. The Mental Resilience Masterclass was very well received, and the feedback from this great group was amazing.

Youngest ever attendee

During this Masterclass I achieved a personal record of the youngest every attendee to sit through a whole Masterclass. This was a beautiful baby girl just a few months old and she sat/lay through the whole Masterclass and was amazingly well behaved. She didn’t answer any questions, but she was taking it all in!

Remote coaching is working well

I have recently taken on two new coaching clients one based in the south of England and the other in Dublin. I have already had a couple of sessions on the phone and they are working extremely well. I hope to get across to Dublin a couple of times for some face to face sessions as well.

I came across this story about happiness which I found to be very educational.

Don’t chase Happiness

“An old man lived in the village. He was one of the most unfortunate people in the world. The whole village was tired of him; he was always gloomy, he constantly complained and was always in a bad mood.

The longer he lived, the viler he was becoming and the more poisonous were his words. People avoided him, because his misfortune became contagious. It was even unnatural and insulting to be happy next to him.

He created the feeling of unhappiness in others.

But one day, when he turned eighty years old, an incredible thing happened. Instantly everyone started hearing the rumour:

“An Old Man is happy today, he doesn’t complain about anything, smiles, and even his face is freshened up.”

The whole village gathered together. The old man was asked: Villager: What happened to you?

“Nothing special. Eighty years I’ve been chasing happiness, and it was useless. And then I decided to live without happiness and just enjoy life. That’s why I’m happy now.”

Moral of the story: Don’t chase happiness. Enjoy your life.”

What great advice!

We can chase happiness all we want but if we don’t enjoy parts of each day then we will always be waiting for the day when we will be happy. We need to capture moments in each day when we observe something beautiful like an autumn leaf or a beautiful sunset.

It may be eating or drinking something, or just kicking back on the sofa and watching TV. It may be going for a walk by yourself or a loved one or eating Christmas dinner with loved ones. Remember this Christmas to capture magic moments you can cherish because this is what happiness is all about.

Thoughts for the week:

1. Do you just rush through the day without taking time to capture magic moments?
2. Life is passing you by and each sunset is a day less to live.
3. You can choose to create a habit to capture these magic moments many times a day.
4. You can either choose to be happy sometime in the future or to be happy today.
5. Choose to be happy today!

I leave you with a message from the NBA Basketball league in America with an extremely unique take on Jingle Bells. Make sure you have your sound up. I was blown away when I received this from my new client in Germany!!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a really successful 2019.

Warmest regards

John

Off the Wall – How to Develop World Class Mental Resilience available here
http://www.jdmindcoach.co.uk/product/off-the-wall-how-to-develop-world-class-mental-resilience/ (Special offer. Put in code 10POUND when prompted to receive a signed copy for £10 including postage and packing – UK only)