Monthly Archives: April 2009

It’s Easter weekend and spring appears to be winning the weather arm- wrestle. With hope in the air and the promise of new beginnings all around, we have the chance to start fresh.

Consider this.

People who are passionate work harder, do better work and more motivated than those who aren’t. Needless to say they also enjoy their work more.

Who do you think has the greatest opportunity to prosper when times are tough? The person who hates their work and has to drag themselves to work every day, or the person who loves what they’re doing and can hardly wait to get to it?

80% of the population is not passionate about what they do. They have been thinking that following their passions is a luxury, that they can’t do what they love because they have to earn a living and support their family. These are the people the current economic crisis will hit the hardest.

You see there is a reason you love the things you love. There is a reason you care about the things you care about. Your passions, the things that matter most to you are like carrots leading you on to fulfill your unique purpose in life.

In the same way, it’s no accident that you become more and more miserable when you ignore your passions to do what you “think” you have to do. Economic crisis is really a wake up call for everyone who is not doing what they love.

The more you ignore your passions, the more unhappy you will become.

What are your passions?

Make a list. Review daily.

(from C & J. Atwood)

Today, April 4 is Baby Harry’s birthday. He only celebrated one – his first. He died of cancer last August.

You may wonder why I would want to discuss such a horrendous tragedy, the loss of child, on a happiness blog. What could this sad tale have to do with being happier? Read on…

Part of becoming happier is simply choosing to do so. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this statement. It’s really quite challenging since most of us are swayed to some degree by others opinions, the news on TV, the weather, and so on. Choosing to frame whatever circumstance you encounter in a positive, optimistic way requires discipline. And when you can learn to do so, the rewards are tremendous. Research clearly demonstrates that optimists are more successful than pessimists IN ALL AREAS OF LIFE –optimistic politicians win more elections, optimistic students get better grades, optimistic athletes win more competitions, and optimistic salespeople make more money. So learning to shift your view of the world to a more positive outlook is worthwhile.

I can explain this to you with research studies, examples, and practical exercises. However, there is no better way to demonstrate how happiness is choice than the story of Harry.  

Imagine, if you dare, what this sort of devastating diagnosis would do to you. To your family, your work, your dreams. How would you react? What would you do? Whatever it is, that response is 100% in your control. The illness isn’t something you can control but your reaction to it is.

Here is an excerpt of the eulogy his parents gave at Harry’s funeral.

Harry’s story could be told many ways. The story we choose to tell is one of hope, transformation, and transcendence. A quote that I love tells us that we are not humans having a soulful experience in this life, rather we are souls having a human experience. Harry taught us a lifetime’s worth about joy, happiness, courage, strength, and love. He taught us about living in pure joy in every moment of life, no matter what you are facing. He taught us the true meaning of strength and courage. He taught us about the unbounded nature of pure love.

The second part of Harry’s life is also a dream of hope. His unrelenting love for us, his joy and courage and how this transformed our family and so many others who accompanied us on this journey. In late February, Harry was hospitalized with what turned out to be an extremely rare and aggressive Stage 4 cancer of the liver. There was some concern that he would live through the first weekend in hospital, the first round of chemotherapy, and would ever come home. He lived another 5 and a half months and came very close to becoming the first child in the world to ever beat this disease back from a stage 4 diagnosis. Harry had enough time to transform us and so many around us.

There are many words one could use to describe this phase of Harry’s journey – we chose the word exhilarating. The spontaneous outpouring of love and support from our family, friends and colleagues was overwhelming – that was Harry’s doing, his ever buoyant courage and optimism moved people.

You never got much sleep crammed into those narrow pull-out beds in the hospital, but it was easier to be with him there than at home. The closer you were to him, the better he made you feel. Harry’s courage was infectious: he pulled us through all the hard times. I remember saying many times that it was easy to stay so optimistic with Harry in charge; what a brilliant leader he was.

Harry slept through the first round of chemo, laughed through round 2, and danced and bounced through rounds 3 and 4. He learned to walk through rounds 5 and 6, pushing a favourite cart in a loop around the paediatric oncology ward at Children’s Hospital, while we raced to keep up pulling his IV pole – although he never quite gained the full confidence to let go of our hands.

He came home in late March after over 5 weeks straight in hospital, in time to celebrate his first birthday, and then his mommy’s and his daddy’s birthdays. We are stunned by the events of these past five and a half months; it’s very difficult to make sense of such an exceedingly rare and deadly disease until you realize that this radiant little angel came into our life to show us how to live.

http://www.hendriksjourney.blogspot.com

How can you change your lense and create more optimism in your life today? Do it now, this time will not come again…