Happiness

Thanks to Columbia Business School professor Hitendra Wadhwa, I was reminded of something that has nothing to do with business:

H=S+C+V

Where H is happiness, S is the set point your born with (think disposition), C are your circumstances (job, salary, family, friends, etc.), and V is how you view the world, how you think about things like C. What's interesting about this equation are the values assigned to S, C, and V. On average, S determines about 50 % of H, C about 10% and V about 40%. I spend a lot of time each day on C things -- at the gym so I can fit into the jeans I bought to look good for so and so, freaking out about work -- circumstances. So here's a little resolution which I always make, but I'll make it again. I want to deliberately practice spending more time on V.

And fixed versus growth mentalities. Let's talk about those because we haven't done that and I think we need to. Fixed is saying "I'm like this" or "it's like this" and I'm not gonna question why. It's doing things that we're good at because we're good at them and why look like an idiot doing something we suck at. It's thinking about something they way we've always thought about it. Because it's comfortable. It feels natural. The thing is, if all you do is what you're already good at, you never get good at anything else. And it's likely that if you're good at one thing, you can probably be good at another. It just may take some patience with looking like a fool for a while. No chicken costume necessary. And how often can you say that?