Dear Clients & Friends,
With a strong finish to 2011, I am enthusiastically preparing for my annual vacation. The office will be closed from 7th December 2011- 2 January 2012.
It was gratifying to see Workplace Happiness as a recurring theme in client interaction this year. It would appear that the term happiness has graduated from a warm and fuzzy term to a priority in securing full team engagement.
As the Holiday Season is drawing near, I thought to share my 3 (decades old, yet still hard to practice) cumulative exercises to achieve personal/professional happiness:
• Practice active Gratitude: Bring mundane fortune to conscious awareness. Good examples are the presence of electricity; running water; a flushing toilet ; a successful computer boot-up; a call from a friend; working limbs/good health; a vehicle that starts - What would our day look like if one or more of these items were not present?
• Celebrate Individuality: We are so often tempted to compare ourselves with others – Constant marketing and social pressure does not make it easy to be content with who we are and what we have.
Most days I force myself to recall the well known line from Desiderata: “There will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself!” Accepting that reality, allows me to experience moments of real pride in my life achievement. My own insignificance in the grand scheme of things sets me free…
• Get off centre stage: So often we place ourselves squarely in the middle of situations. Especially in difficult times we feel that the world is out to get us…Realizing that the bigger picture is not always evident - Applying exercises 1 & 2 will ensure our ability to be accepting of randomness, chance and the wild-card factor.
Oftentimes the ability to surrender to perceived unfairness and situations/people that are difficult to digest helps me move on, and live with less stress than in earlier years.
I am ever grateful for the dozens of people who have contributed in so many ways to the success of my business – There is no way I could have survived without your support! This especially true as I have endeavored to match my own vision with like-minded clients over the past 14 years of operation.
My best wishes to you all for the Holidays … And a safe, healthy and prosperous 2012!
I look forward to renewed contact in the New Year.
Warm regards,
Rodger
