Very Happy Phil

Here is a tip for happiness; Lower your expectations. Here is a tip for unhappiness; High expectations! We have probably all made this mistake at some point, I know I have. The higher and harder our goals and expectations are the harder it is for us to experience happiness. Low expectations are JUST LIKE having a low hurdle to jump over. The lower your hurdles the higher your happiness!

I will give you an example; I know of several marathon runners who have travelled to beautiful parts of the world to run marathons but have ended up unhappy after their marathon. Why? They had ONE big goal and just missed achieving it by a couple of minutes! An easier way for them to be happy would be to have a big goal and some little goals. Or to put it another way, set a high bar and some low bars. The high bar can be winning or finishing with their best ever time. Low bars could be; doing their best, enjoying, smiling, laughing, finishing, complete under 5 hours, running most of the way, meeting and helping others along the way.

Setting high bars and low bars is your route to more joy and happiness. The mind loves to have goals. Beware the goals you choose. People with a dream are often very motivated and very happy. But people with only big goals and big expectations can often be unhappy. Here are a few of my favourite quotes to inspire you;

"The secret to happiness is low expectations."
-Psychologist Barry Schwartz

"Make it easy for yourself to be happy. Set some easy happy goals. The lower our hurdles the higher our happiness!"
- Phil McNally

Have a LOWER HURDLES and HIGHER HAPPINESS week!

Keep positive!

Phil McNally
Author

Remember,
"Having big AND small goals increases our happiness AND reduces our sadness."
–Phil McNally, author of 'Winning Mentality'

PS Interested in hearing me speak for an hour on the topic of happiness?

"Very interesting and a lot of fun. Good team-building. Loved the idea about banter breaks! What results have I noticed? Has reflected in the teams working attitude. 9/10"
-Debbie Rose, Business Development Manager, Edinburgh Training Centre