Curious about happiness

I just had lunch with a colleague – Kate, a casual celebration of her third year with RedBalloon.

A bit of reminiscing and comparing notes on what we think changed most since 2008 both inside and outside the business.

The question she posed as we walked back was: “Do you still think you are learning a lot?”

Interesting, because that is what I am most excited about – learning. By nature I am curious (one of my strengths is input, which means I love to gather information).

I answered her: “The thing that I am reading about and curious about at the moment is ‘what causes happiness?’.”

There is much research on such topics and I am reading academic papers and books to discover varied opinions on happiness.

I also ask those around me. Lunching with a friend yesterday I asked “why are we happy? Or not?”

He said in his opinion “it is a choice that we make. We either choose to be happy or we choose not to be”.

I know I am a very positive person – sometimes painfully so. But I don’t wake up in the morning and say “I’m going to be happy today”.

I do my yoga, chat to my children, pat the dog, go to work … get on with whatever is planned for the day. Even when we have a flood in the office my mood did not change.

There was no drama we just looked at the quickest and best ways to get things back on track – and I went home happy.

As I begin to read and discover the construct of happiness – and I know there are many more books on the topic – I want to know how one benchmarks happiness?

Is one person’s unhappiness another person’s happiness?

I was alarmed to discover Australia does not rank very well in the Happy Planet Index (HPI). In 2006 Australia came 139th and by 2009 Australia had jumped to 102nd on the list.

I wondered why Australia is not listed as a happier place and it is interesting that the pursuit of material goods is not making people happier.

Manfred Kets de Vries in his INSEAD address deconstructs happiness to be: someone to love, something to do and something to hope for.

Here are some questions I would like to ask you:

• What is your definition of happiness?
• What makes you truly happy?
• When was the last time you felt deeply happy – or really belly laughed?

I look forward to reading your responses.

Naomi Simson is considered one of Australia’s ‘Best Bosses’. She is an employee engagement advocate and practices what she preaches in her own business. RedBalloon has been named as one of only six Hewitt Best Employers in Australia and New Zealand for 2009 and awarded an engagement scorecard of over 90% two years in a row – the average in Australian businesses is 55%. RedBalloon has also been nominated by BRW as being in the top 10 Best Places to Work in Australia behind the likes of Google. One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, Naomi regularly entertains as a passionate speaker inspiring people on employer branding, engagement and reward and recognition. Naomi writes a blog and is a published author – and has received many accolades and awards for the business she founded – RedBalloon.com.au.