Having it ALL – leading a full and fulfilling life
Look around, and what do you see? People who have great jobs, beautiful families, stunning homes (cars, clothes, etc.), and incredible lives. People posting thought-provoking blogs, funny memes and beautiful pictures of loved ones at events.
Do you ever wonder how some people seem to have it all? I do. The reality is NONE of us have it all. After coaching people for nearly two years, I’ve learned that even the most beautiful/successful/smiling people have scars, pain and fear. Some are just really adept at hiding it.
So, what does it mean to have it all? Who knows?
The more important question really is… What does it mean to live a full and fulfilling life?
Simple… It means you’re happy.
And Americans as a whole are not a happy bunch. Worse yet, we are getting more UN-happy each year, and now rank 19th in the world for happiness according to the World Happiness Report. “We finished 19th on the list behind Belgium,” Jimmy Kimmel said recently on his late-night show on ABC. “The people who feel the need to put mayonnaise on their french fries are happier than we are. Cheer up, everybody.”
Why should we be talking about Happiness, when there is so much work to be done, things to buy, and places to see and be seen?
Because happiness is the goal of all goals, the penultimate achievement. As Aristotle said, ”Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” Yes, Aristotle was born in 384, but his words are still true today.
Since the late 1990s, positive psychologists have been studying how our actions, thoughts and emotions play into our overall happiness.
And our overall happiness is a key factor in our overall success.
Read that again… Happiness is a KEY factor in our overall SUCCESS.
Today, the science behind neuroplasticity and neurogenesis have shown that we can physically change our brain’s function to improve our lives. And Happiness has become an essential field of study in places such as Harvard and Yale.
According to Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD, an internationally renowned expert in happiness who created the most popular course in Harvard’s history, the aim of life is and ought
to be happiness whole person wellbeing” – in other words, to be happy, we have to look at the whole person – all of ourselves.
Ben-Shahar developed a new way to look at and achieve happiness based on years of research and his leadership role in bringing happiness to the forefront of academia. He created the SPIRE – Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Relational, and Emotional – model. The elements of SPIRE are all interconnected, and each is essential to overall wellbeing and happiness.