Johana just won $50M in a national lottery! She feels happy and lucky and she decides she is not going to become like the “New Rich”, spending everything within 3 years, going bankrupt and ending up miserable for the rest of her life. She seeks the advice of Paula, a financial advisor who guides her through a range of investment options. Paula, like 90% of the investors advises Johana to diversify her assets and not to place all eggs in one basket.
Because Johana diversifies, she limits the risk of losing all her money, right?
What if Happiness was about the same thing?
New York City 2019 statistics show that more than half the population was not born here, highlighting that employment is the main reason most people move to New York. People move here in the pursuit of professional success, not a quiet place to retire. The cost of living is high which may be a contributing factor to people staying in jobs that are not fully satisfying.
New York is at the center of the U.S economy. For some people, working here represents a kind of consecration and increased status to their professional credentials.
New York is filled with people from all walks of life with a range of different ambitions that are all linked around work. Work is often at the center of New York’s experience, representing a big part of our lives, reality, consciousness and mind. “What if I am laid off…I deserve a better position, better job, more inspiring boss, higher salary, bigger bonuses…
The result of working with such intensity often creates a lack of time for other activities.
Often times, we expect to gain happiness and fulfillment through very few channels.
If work holds over 80% of your conscious life and thoughts, you will tend to feel extremely happy when work goes well, but if it goes south; your well-being will go with it!
If you ask Paula, she would probably tell you that you are placing all of your eggs in one basket, and would advise you to diversify your interests, just like you diversify you investments, right Paula?
What are the different channels of Happiness and where can we source of our well-being from?
1-Work
This represents a lot in our life, especially, because we moved to New York to improve our professional life.
2-Relationship
This category is our family, love life, friends and human connections. We are social animals.
3-Activities
This is everything you do that isn’t work. Playing the guitar, participating in sports, going to a concert, relaxing at a spa, or any other hobbies you enjoy doing.
4-Adventures
When was the last time you did something for the first time? Travel and new discoveries all fall into the adventures category.
5-Development
This is bigger than what we think; personal development, personal growth, learning something new or going deeper into self-knowledge
Now if you diversify your conscious time and thoughts to involve varied activities, your well-being gets nurtured from more than just one aspect of your life. If work goes bad, the situation is bad but not everything collapses. Your varied and balanced life creates a consistent rhythm to your thoughts, happiness and overall well-being.
I prepared a little questionnaire for you; would you like to take it?
6 questions probably under 1 minutes.
