13 Feb According to science you can enjoy more happiness by being more generous!
by Sonia Thompson
Your happiness level plays a major role in your ability to build a successful business.
Customers can often feel when the products and services they buy are made with joy, care, and love. Those are the ones that earn their loyalty. Conversely, they can also tell when something is hastily thrown together by someone who’s stressed out or unfulfilled by what they do.
Your emotional state impacts the quality of your work.
For instance, would you be eager to sit in the chair for a haircut if you just heard your stylist having a heated argument with his girlfriend? I wouldn’t.
The good news is, science has given us more clues as to specific actions you can take to consistently increase your levels of happiness, satisfaction, and self-esteem. And as an added bonus, it’ll make you more productive in your work too.
Be generous.
Studies show that hitting the 100-hour mark over the course of a year giving to others will make you happier and more productive. Other data hints to the fact that altruism reduces your stress load, gives you more energy and extends your life expectancy too.
How to find the time to make a meaningful impact
While 100-hours may sound like a giant number, it breaks down to just two hours a week.
Here’s the way Adam Grant summarized this research in his best-selling book Give and Take:
Two hours a week in a fresh domain appears to be the sweet spot where people make a meaningful difference without being overwhelmed or sacrificing other priorities. It’s also the range in which volunteering is most likely to strike a healthy balance, offering benefits to the volunteer as well as the recipients.
Traditional forms of altruism through volunteering your time to causes that are important to you works. But if you already have a packed schedule, you don’t have to go and find an additional two hours to capture these benefits.
You can fit your good deeds within the space of activities you are already doing.
For instance, being generous can be as simple as helping people on your team, mentoring other entrepreneurs, and even connecting people in your network to contacts who can help advance their goals…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE