“Happiness is the secret ingredient for successful businesses. If you have a happy company it will be invincible” Richard Branson
Sounds good doesn’t it? All you have to do to be invincible is be happy.
That sounds so simple!
In an article by Forbes, various studies have found that happy people:
- are better decision makers
- have better job performance
- have higher levels of physical and emotional wellness which reduced costs to businesses.
- work harder toward goals
- are more likable
- put in more effort and accomplish positive outcomes.
- are more engaged, invigorated and dedicated at work
- have the greatest levels of health, wealth (GDP per capita) and educational attainment.
Finding happiness so all of these things can happen might mean saying no to things that feel wrong, doing work that makes you smile, not working with clients that make you sad, outsourcing the stuff that you don’t enjoy, maybe redecorating your office, or even just buying a new mug to drink your tea out of (maybe with a spoonful of sugar) – whatever it is that will make you happier in your business, do that.
If you’re having a hard time deciding what to keep and what to deal with (or if you just want a fun exercise to help you feel happier about your business) then make a list about your business – things that make you happy on one side and things that don’t on the other. You might find it helpful to keep the list on your desk and then every time you do something you can assign it to a column.
You can decide what to do with the stuff that doesn’t make you happy – do you NEED to do it? Who can do it instead? How can you make it more enjoyable? What is it about that thing that makes it go into that column? Is there a way to inject a bit more happiness into it or find the fun?
The stuff that makes you happy shows you how successful your business is. Hopefully this side will be longer than the other! Look how happy you are!
Happiness makes you more productive. Here’s a video from Shawn Achor to share research about this. Working harder doesn’t make you more successful. You are more likely to achieve success if you start with a happiness advantage which increases your intelligence, energy, productivity and resiliency.
What can you do to make yourself even happier? Maybe you need to take more breaks, speak to people on the phone more than emailing them, hire a coach to help you get your oomph back, play forunately/ unfortunately – ending on fortunately, think about different ways of working, keep a gratitude journal, offer a membership site, make decisions based on happiness, go networking more, run events, say thank you more often, run a Facebook group, send out more fun emails rather than newsy ones? There’s a lot of changes you could make. More than these ones – and certainly more relevant.
Or to become happy if your list sways the other way? First you need to identify what the problem is. It might be that you hate sending emails, that you find writing hard, that you struggle to post to social media, that you can’t plan for toffee, you’re untidy, you feel all over the place or overwhelmed or you struggle with all of the showing up things. Maybe it’s accounts. Sending invoices. Admin. Time management. There are an abundance of things that you might be struggling with – this is the time to get help. If you can’t ditch it, ask someone else. Assemble a team. If it’s a lack of clarity or knowledge join a course or attend a workshop.
Happiness is just around the corner, which means you’re very nearly invincible.