Posts Tagged ‘Success’

What Are You Here to Accomplish?

Success Intelligence: Your Real Work

On January 28th-30th, I co-facilitated with Ben Renshaw and Avril Carson a public workshop called Success Intelligence: Living a Life you Love. Approximately 50 people attended the workshop. They were from all walks of life including media, politics, art, health-care, education, and business. For three days, we immersed ourselves in a rich inquiry into the nature of authentic success.

In the week before the workshop, I came across some words attributed to Roger Ebert. They read: “What you do instead of your work is your real work.” These words made me stop in my tracks. I felt an uneasy sensation in my stomach. At the same time a loud “bong” sounded off inside my head, one like you hear at the start of a Universal Pictures movie. I used Roger’s words to do an on-the-spot inventory on my life. The first question on my inventory was: What is the real work of my life? Continue Reading

Are You Addicted to Permanent Busyness?

Why We Sometimes Confuse Adrenaline With Purpose

Permanent busyness is not intelligent. In fact, it is my experience that permanent busyness is often a major block to success in work, relationships, and life. The Busy Generation has to learn that it is not enough to be busy. A busy life is not necessarily a life well lived. A busy work schedule is not evidence of any great accomplishment. Being busy neither guarantees success nor equates to success. Henry David Thoreau, the American philosopher, who has inspired so many leaders and thinkers, once wrote: It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants.

The question is: What are we busy about? Permanent busyness might start with the best of intentions, but along the way we disconnect from what is truly important, sacred, and real. We lose the power to discriminate. We are so busy, so overbooked, and so obsessed with our schedules that we are no longer open and available to the essential truth and beauty of our lives. We are lost, but we are usually too busy to notice. As the popular saying goes: “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” Continue Reading

The Inner Life Of A Leader

Success is a Real YES!

by Robert Holden, Ph.D
Poetry
Today I am giving a 1-day workshop on success intelligence and the inner-life of a leader. The workshop is taking place in Manhattan, and is being hosted by One Spirit. One of the themes I will be exploring is “The Real Yes.”

I believe a leader is anyone who senses the big YES in their belly and immediately goes into labour; Continue Reading

What is Destination Addiction?

How to Stop Thinking about What Comes Next

Do you live your life only to get to the end of it? Most people answer this question with a “no,” but not everyone lives like they mean it. In the manic society that most of us experience, people exhibit a frantic, neurotic behavior I call “Destination Addiction.” This addiction is a major block to success. People who suffer from Destination Addiction believe that success is a destination. They are addicted to the idea that the future is where success is, happiness is, and heaven is. Each passing moment is merely a ticket to get to the future. They live in the “not now,” they are psychologically absent, and they disregard everything they have. Destination Addiction is a preoccupation with the idea that happiness is somewhere else. We suffer, literally, from the pursuit of happiness. We are always on the run, on the move, and on the go. Our goal is not to enjoy the day, it is to get through the day. We have always to get to somewhere else first before we can relax and before we can savor the moment. But we never get there. There is no point of arrival. We are permanently dissatisfied. The feeling of success is continually deferred. We live in hot pursuit of some extraordinary bliss we have no idea how to find. Continue Reading

Happiness is not an “It”

So How Do We Know What Happiness REALLY Is?

I like the story told of Socrates, the Greek philosopher, who was known for his love of marketplaces. He would always visit a market if his schedule permitted. Often, he would alter his schedule to make sure he could. It was noted, however, that Socrates rarely bought anything at the markets. One of Socrates’ students once asked him, “Why do you visit so many markets and make so few purchases?” Socrates smiled and replied, “I simply delight in looking at all the pretty things I don’t need.”

At the heart of Success Intelligence is the wisdom to know what happiness is and is not. The wisdom of happiness must surely be that happiness is not an it. Either that or we have all been shopping in the wrong places. How can anyone be truly happy if they believe that happiness is an “it” that can be bought? We have to think more deeply than this. And how can anyone be truly successful if they do not know what they really value? Continue Reading

What is Pleasure Blindness?

Cultivating the ability to generate your own inner joy and happiness rather than looking outside.

We now have less time to enjoy the things we believe we must buy to make us happy. — Staffan Linder, economist

 

At The Happiness Project, we have collected hundreds of happiness and well-being surveys that prove that consumerism’s guarantee of happiness has bounced. Every day in the Manic Society, we are rapidly increasing our purchasing power, but we are not experiencing any significant increase in happiness. New products are hitting the market faster than ever before, and with overnight delivery they arrive on our doorsteps in record time.

Thanks to the “joy of credit” we don’t even have to wait to afford these things. Surely this sounds like instant happiness.

But research tells us time and time again that we are not any happier. We suffer from what Economist Staffan Linder calls “pleasure blindness,” which is the ability to generate one’s own joy and happiness. Continue Reading