Ask the CHO What if you suddenly stopped being happy - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Ask the CHO What if you suddenly stopped being happy - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Russell Quinn asks a very interesting question in a comment: I?ve been reading your blog for a while and your career in ?being happy? got me thinking. Can an occupation in promoting an emotion like your own happiness be compared to something like an athlete? and what happens when it?s over? For example, you can train yourself to be happier and work at improving your own happiness, in the same way as you can train your muscles to be a better runner. You can eventually become known as a ?happiness officer? or an ?athlete?. But, in the same way that something unforeseen and out of your control, like a broken leg, can happen end your athletic career, a major trauma could send you into a spiral of depression and end your career in happiness. I guess my point of this.. is that i was considering these two statements and how the public would react to them: ?I used to be an athlete, but a broken leg meant I had to give it up 5 years ago?, and ?I used to promote happiness, but a period of depression meant i gave it up? They are both really the same thing after all. Sorry for going off at a tangent ;) Thats a great tangent! And I really like the mental image of the Chief Happiness Officer whos sprained his happy muscle and is now depressed :o) To me, happiness is not a fixed state its a constantly fluctuating emotion. Its not like I can make myself happy, and then be happy every moment of every day for the rest of my life. No matter how happy a person is right this second, something could happen to make that person desperately unhappy. Depression is a great example as it is a chemical imbalance in the brain resulting in a severely bad mood that may not have been triggered by any external events in your life. But heres the crucial point: As Russell writes, you can train happiness. This wont mean that youll always be happy but that youll be as happy as you can be, given your circumstances. And when something bad happens you will be unhappy, but you will be less unhappy and be so for a shorter time. Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology admits that he is not a particularly happy person and that his efforts have taken him from depressive to moderately happy. Which kinda explains why the planets foremost proponent of happiness always looks so grumpy :o) So it could absolutely happen: I could lose my happiness because something bad happened to me or for no reason at all. And I probably would be forced to quit as the Chief Happiness Officer if that happened because theres no way you can make other people happy if youre unhappy yourself. A large part of what I present in my presentations and workshops is me being happy and full of energy and customers constantly remark on this. They like what I say and they like the way I say it just as much. Another important point is that happiness is no less nice, desirable or beautiful for being fragile. Yes, you can build up amazing levels of happiness and lose it all in a moment when some terrifying, unstoppable event takes it all away. But thats no reason not to be as happy as you can. Does that make sense at all? Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related