What Makes You Happy?

Ever notice what makes you hap­py and how you have fun changes as you get old­er? 

When I was a kid, build­ing things and play­ing with my friends made me hap­py. As a teen, it was hav­ing fun and get­ting into trou­ble with friends and my ear­ly entre­pre­neur­ial adventures.

Ear­ly in my career, it was all about the dri­ve to achieve, the hus­tle and the wins.

Now, it’s about how I can help oth­er peo­ple so that they can achieve what they want in work and life.

But as my kids become more inde­pen­dent and my busi­ness matures — and I’ve learned a few lessons about the phys­i­cal and men­tal costs of a dri­ven life — I notice that what makes me hap­py is chang­ing and expand­ing, and I’m mak­ing more of a point of mak­ing sure they happen.

Like spend­ing time with my fam­i­ly and friends, and rac­ing cars keeps me hap­pi­er and healthier.

For Bill Gates, fun in his teens and 20s was all about soft­ware. In his 30s, about the dri­ve to put ​“a com­put­er on every desk and in every home.”

Now in his 60s, with his big goals achieved, he talks about what makes him hap­py now, in this recent Inc. arti­cle. And just like doing your Resilience Rit­u­als to strength­en your mind, body and spir­it, mak­ing hap­pi­ness hap­pen is inten­tion­al – some­thing to think about at any age.

“When I was in my 30s, I did­n’t think peo­ple in their 60s were very smart or had much fun. Now I have had a counter-rev­e­la­tion. Ask me in 20 years and I will tell you how smart 80-year-olds are.” — Bill Gates

Bill’s Hap­pi­ness Breakdown

• Fol­low through on your com­mit­ments. Inten­tion­al­ly choose and fol­low through on what mat­ters most. Don’t allow your­self to live per­ma­nent­ly in feel­ing stuck or unmo­ti­vat­ed. If you want to change, do it. Ask your­self, ​“Am I doing what I want – what most mat­ters to me?” Lis­ten to your voice of truth and com­mit wholeheartedly.
• Have a mind­set of giv­ing. It’s sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly proven that giv­ing to oth­ers is good for our well­be­ing. That gen­eros­i­ty can be mon­ey, time, men­tor­ing, or pay­ing it for­ward. Con­tribute to bet­ter some­one or something.
• Treat your body like a tem­ple. Exer­cise — no mat­ter how long or how intense — is an anti­dote for depres­sion, anx­i­ety and stress. Find some­thing you love, do it reg­u­lar­ly — and you might just have fun, too.
• Put fam­i­ly first. Set your non-nego­tiable fam­i­ly pri­or­i­ties and bound­aries first. Then do the same at work. With­in those bound­aries, you are free to focus and par­tic­i­pate ful­ly. Your fam­i­ly will love you even more for it – and you may just live longer.

The Chal­lenge

• Where do you need to put pri­or­i­ties and, poten­tial­ly, bound­aries in place to expe­ri­ence what you want in Self, Work and Life?
• In order to max your own hap­pi­ness, what adjust­ments could you make?

About Kevin:

CEOs typ­i­cal­ly place their first call to Coach Kevin with a cri­sis to solve. They stay because of his busi­ness acu­men and no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-is style.

Kevin’s career spans 20 years, over a dozen coun­tries and four con­ti­nents. He’s worked with hun­dreds of CEOs and exec­u­tives, help­ing them to break through busi­ness chal­lenges, grow their com­pa­nies and find per­son­al suc­cess along the way.

These expe­ri­ences inspired Kevin’s book, Your Oxy­gen Mask First, in which he reveals the 17 habits every leader must know to tran­scend the per­ils of suc­cess, and achieve even more.

About Lawrence & Co:

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.