25 Mar What would you do if you could do anything for a day? Answer this question to find more happiness!
Happiness isn’t necessarily doing everything: it’s more like doing what we want when we want.
So if you had the freedom to do anything, what would you do? Because your answer to that vexing question is likely to be very similar to your answer to the most important question of all … how can I be happier?
via TED Ideas by Sam Horn
This 4-question quiz can help you identify the specific things that could make you happier right now, says writer Sam Horn. Just pick up a pen and paper.
I had just wrapped up an intense two-day consulting job in Southern California. I was sitting in my rental car, trying to drum up the energy to drive to the airport and fly back to Washington, DC.
My phone rang. It was my grown son, Andrew, who was helping me with my business. He must have sensed something in my voice, because he asked, “Whazzup, Mom?”
“Andrew, I’m so exhausted,” I said. “I don’t even know how I’m going to get on the plane. I’ve got to take a red-eye and then turn around in a couple days and fly back to the West Coast.”
He replied, “Mom, there’s something about you I don’t understand. You’ve created a life where you can do anything you want, and you’re not taking advantage of it.”
He didn’t stop there. He said, “Why don’t you stay there the next few days? I’ll book you a hotel, and you can handle your business from there.”
An hour later, I was falling asleep in a hotel in Laguna Beach to the sounds of the ocean. Bliss.
The next day I followed another piece of Andrew’s advice. He’d said, “Mom, you’ve been working so hard, you deserve a break. Why don’t you play hooky for a day? I’ve got this.”
As a single mom and small business owner, I’d been going nonstop for decades. The thought of waking up when I wanted and not having appointments all day made me feel like a little kid. After waking up, I dawdled over coffee and then headed into town to explore. I was drawn like a magnet to a bookstore, where I gravitated to the writers’ section and started thumbing through old favorites by Anne Lamott and Julia Cameron. As I did, a voice welled up in me: “I am a writer. That’s who I am.”
The voice was as real as if someone were speaking to me. It was the author I’d buried in busyness, the author who spent most of her time consulting, the author who’d had no time to work on a new book for two years. Please understand; I’m grateful for my career. I do work that I love with people I enjoy and respect, and I get paid for it.
Still, what this day of hooky was bringing up was that I had set aside my passion. I spent most of my time helping others get their work out in the world — instead of getting my own work out in the world.
What would you do if you could play hooky?
What is it that, when you’re doing it, you don’t want to be doing anything else? How long has it been since you’ve had time to do that? If you could play hooky for a day — and there would be no repercussions and your responsibilities would be taken care of — what would you do?
What you do on your day of hooky doesn’t have to be grandiose. It’s your day. You get to do exactly what you want without apologies or “shoulds.” It can be a bucket list of things you’ve been putting off … or an all-day nap. You have complete freedom to do what’s been calling you. But for many of us — who are preoccupied or stressed or just focused on all the stuff of day-to-day life — it’s hard to know what that even is.
This four-square quiz can help. It takes only a few minutes and can help you identify specific things that could make you happier — right now, not someday.
Here’s how to take it. Have you ever played a word-association game in which someone asks a question, and you’re supposed to say the first thing that comes to mind? That’s what you want to do here…
…keep reading HERE for more specific guidance about questions for each of the 4 quadrants and how to effectively complete this potentially powerful activity