“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” Dalai Lama

Emotional well-being is defined as the ability to successfully handle life’s stresses, adapt to difficult times, and thrive. Emotional well-being is also good for your overall health.

Studies have consistently shown that emotional well and happiest people are those who seek meaning and purpose, practice gratitude, and build strong close relationships, as opposed to seeking immediate gratification or pleasure, states Tchiki Davis, Ph.D., Founder, Berkeley Well-Being Institute, and well-being expert. To find fulfillment, you must uncover your true hopes, ambitions, dreams and ideas, then make your actions match these ideals.

Yet, no matter how perfectly you conduct your life, you won’t always be joyful and peaceful. The happiest and emotionally well individuals will experience stormy and uncertain periods.

Happiness and Emotional Wellness allows us to thrive, solve the problems we confront in our lives and maintain a strong sense of hope.

What determines happiness is due to personality and thoughts and behaviors that can be changed. Thus, you can learn how to be happy — or at least happier.

Although you may have thought, as many people do, that happiness comes from being born wealthy or beautiful or living a stress-free life, the reality is that people who have wealth, beauty or less stress are not happier on average than those who don’t enjoy those things.

People who are happy seem to intuitively know that their happiness is the sum of their life choices. They know that choices, thoughts and actions can influence their level of happiness. You can enhance your happiness by:

• Investing in relationships – Surround yourself with happy people. Being around people who are content buoys your own mood. And by being happy yourself, you give something back to those around you.
• Expressing gratitude – Gratitude is more than saying thank you. It’s a sense of wonder, appreciation and, yes, thankfulness for life. Think about what you’re grateful for before you go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning.
• Cultivating optimism – Develop the habit of seeing the positive side of things. Remember that what is right about you almost always is more than what is wrong.
• Finding your purpose – People who strive to meet a goal or fulfill a mission are happier than those who don’t have such aspirations. Having a goal provides a sense of purpose, bolsters self-esteem and brings people together. Research studies suggest that relationships provide the strongest meaning and purpose to your life. So cultivate meaningful relationships.
• Living in the moment – Don’t postpone joy waiting for a day when your life is less busy or less stressful. That day may never come. Instead, look for opportunities to savor the small pleasures of everyday life. Focus on the positives in the present moment, instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.

Spending time with supportive friends or family, cultivating a grateful attitude and an optimistic outlook, focusing on your purpose, and living in the present can help you take steps toward being happier.

Additionally, practicing  gratitude is a great way to boost emotional wellness. First, it feels good because we feel happier to have good things in our lives. Second, it helps improve our relationships when we share our gratitude with others. They see that we value them and it makes our relationships stronger. This makes gratitude a double whammy for our emotional wellness. Start by writing a gratitude list or gratitude notes to people who you are grateful for.

Good friends are good for your health.

It’s never too late to build new friendships or reconnect with old friends. Investing time in making friends and strengthening your friendships can pay off in better health and a brighter outlook for years to come.

Developing and maintaining healthy friendships involves give-and-take. Sometimes you’re the one giving support, and other times you’re on the receiving end. Letting friends know you care about them and appreciate them can help strengthen your bond. It’s as important for you to be a good friend as it is to surround yourself with good friends.

Friends play a significant role in promoting your overall health.

Friends can help you celebrate good times and provide support during bad times. Friends prevent loneliness and give you a chance to offer needed companionship, too. Friends can also:

• Increase your sense of belonging and purpose
• Boost your happiness and reduce your stress
• Improve your self-confidence and self-worth
• Help you cope with traumas, such as divorce, serious illness, job loss or the death of a loved one
• Encourage you to change or avoid unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as excessive drinking or lack of exercise

Friends play a significant role in promoting your overall health. Adults with strong social support have a reduced risk of many significant health problems, including depression, high blood pressure and an unhealthy body mass index (BMI), according to Mayo Clinic. Studies have even found that older adults with a rich social life are likely to live longer than their peers with fewer connections.

References:

1. https://www.psychalive.org/the-secret-to-happiness-and-well-being/
2. https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/emotional-wellness.html
3. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/friendships/art-20044860
4. https://www.nih.gov/health-information/emotional-wellness-toolkit

“The kind of people that all teams need are people who are humble, hungry, and smart: humble being little ego, focusing more on their teammates than on themselves. Hungry, meaning they have a strong work ethic, are determined to get things done, and contribute any way they can. Smart, meaning not intellectually smart but inner personally smart.”  Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni thinks it is time to change the way people prepare for success. Drawing from his book, The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni makes the compelling case that the key to success in an increasingly team-oriented world are Three Simple Virtues:

1. Humility – think about others before themselves…putting others before yourselves.
2. Hunger – need a innate sense of hunger to get things done.
3. Smart – high emotional intelligence…how we use our smarts to get the best out of others (people smarts).

Whether you’re a senior executive or a high school coach, focusing on these deceptively simple virtues can radically improve your personal and professional effectiveness and fulfillment.

The Concept

An ideal team player embodies three virtues: humility, hunger and people smarts. The power this combination yields drastically accelerates and improves the process of building high-performing teams.

• HUMBLE — Ideal team players are humble. They lack excessive ego or concerns about status. They are quick to point out the contributions of others and slow to seek recognition for their own. They share credit, emphasize team over self, and define success collectively rather than individually.
• HUNGRY — Ideal team players are hungry. They are always looking for more—more things to do, more to learn, more responsibility. Hungry people rarely have to be pushed by a manager to work harder because they are self-motivated and diligent. They are constantly thinking about the next step and the next opportunity.
• SMART — Ideal team players are smart. They are emotionally intelligent and have common sense about people. They tend to know what is happening in a group situation and how to effectively deal with others. They have good judgment and intuition around the subtleties of group dynamics and the impact of their words and actions.

What makes this model so powerful and unique is the required combination of all three attributes together, according to Lencioni. If even one attribute is missing in a team member, teamwork becomes significantly more difficult and sometimes even impossible.

References:

1. https://www.tablegroup.com/product/ideal-team-player/
2. https://de7pikzj4hvyk.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/14171138/Ideal-Team-Player-Model-and-Summary.pdf
3. https://www.tablegroup.com/18-how-dysfunctional-is-your-team/

Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of the Table Group, a firm dedicated to making work more fulfilling by making organizations healthier.

Studies have consistently shown that the majority of Americans have no idea how much they need to save for retirement. Most use an arbitrary round number, such as $1 million, as the amount they require for a retirement nest egg. While having a random savings goal is obviously better than none at all, finding a more accurate retirement number doesn’t have to be complicated, according to Motley Fool.

The truth is that how much you’ll need for retirement is unique to you and your family. However, many people gain confidence in their plans to retire whilst actually planning in order to know what to set aside for daily expenses, healthcare, and recreation.

Failing to plan, is planning to fail

For retirement planning support and support over the course of your retirement, consulting a financial advisor has been shown to be a positive option. Voya Financial, in a study, found that 79% of people who use an advisor said they “know how to pursue achieving their retirement goals.” The study also found that 59% of those who use an advisor have calculated how much they need to retire, while 52% established a formal retirement investment plan.

There’s no way to accurately project exactly how much you’ll need to save and invest for retirement, but it’s a smart idea to err on the side of caution and aim to exceed your retirement number. After all, the last thing you want is to be 85 years old and running out of money.

References:

1. https://article.smartasset.com/4-key-steps-for-retiring-comfortably
2. https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/10/09/the-simple-way-to-find-your-retirement-number.aspx

“If you buy a stock without dividends, make sure it’s marketed well so the value increases and you can eventually sell it for a profit. Anything less isn’t worth your investment.” Mark Cuban

Many people want to invest in stocks but are simply afraid to take the plunge. Yet, investing in stocks is essential for individuals to reach their financial goals and to enjoy a life of financial freedom in retirement

However, investing in stocks is a simple process, but not easy to execute. In order to stay on track with your financial goals, it’s important to keep your emotions and confidence in check while investing since one’s behavior in the .

The key thing to understand is that over longer periods of time there is significantly less volatility in the market. Short-term, there is no question that investing in stocks is risky. While you have a chance at larger reward, there is often a greater chance of a massive loss.

This Fidelity Investment video shows how disciplined investing can help you meet your financial goals.

Six rules to disciplined investing which will help you make better long-term financial and invesment decisions:

1. Have a long-term investment philosophy and plan.
2. Form a prudent asset allocation based on this philosophy.
3. Select low-cost index funds to represent asset classes in the allocation.
4. Maintain this portfolio through all market conditions.
5. Don’t change the asset allocation due to recent market activity.
6. Don’t hold back on new investments while waiting for market clarity.

References:

1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickferri/2015/10/06/six-rules-to-disciplined-investing

“We humans are unhappy in large part because we are insatiable; after working hard to get what we want, we routinely lose interest in the object of our desire. Rather than feeling satisfied, we feel a bit bored, and in response to this boredom, we go on to form new, even grander desires.” William B. Irvine, author of the book “A Guide to the Good Life”

You will find that the real joy and happiness often comes from the pursuit of destinations, rather than the destinations themselves.

Freedom to choose is the friend of natural happiness. Financial independence gives you the ability to design your day in such a way that you can spend mornings doing work you love and evenings being around people you love.

Practices like:

• Meditation,
• Gratitude and
• Making time for social connections

…have the biggest effect on our happiness and well-being,

One of the things that is important to understand is the freedom that money affords. It provides you the means to make some of your own choices and not feel like you’re locked into a job. It was once said that if money is not making you happy, then you’re not spending it right.

“Money doesn’t buy happiness.”

“Money doesn’t increase happiness in the way that we think”, said William B. Irvine, author of the book “A Guide to the Good Life”. “Our minds are lying to us about how much of an impact extra cash will have on our happiness.”

Money gives you more control over your life; the freedom to retire early, the security to support yourself and your family, the comfort of buying things and experiences that excite you, the option of saying “yes” when your friends invite you to dinner…I could go on and on.

Harvard study from 2018 suggested that “great wealth does predict greater happiness” — for millionaires. Researchers found “consistent evidence that somewhat higher levels of wealth are not associated with higher well-being, but substantially higher levels (net worth of $8 million or more) are linked to modestly greater well-being.” (While the majority of us aren’t millionaires, there’s still a good amount of data to imply that happiness, to some degree, is tied to money.)

The class called “The Science of Well-Being,” is taught by Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology and cognitive science.

Money ≠ happiness.

Money is the tool that we can all use to buy more time to spend on these things. A phenomenon called “miswantings,” refers to the idea that people sometimes “mispredict” how much they’ll enjoy something in the future, according to Dr. Santos.

Dr. S antos references several “annoying features of the mind” that influence us to chase after things that don’t really make us happy. Many of the materialistic goals we strive for make little to no lasting impact on our overall life satisfaction, Santos argues. One of the the main misconceptions she addresses is money.

References:

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/13/i-took-yales-most-popular-class-ever-and-it-completely-changed-how-i-spend-my-money.html
2. https://fourpillarfreedom.com/chop-wood-carry-water/

Dr. Mike Evans is a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Family Medicine. He is a Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and has an endowed Chair in Patient Engagement in Child Nutrition at the University of Toronto.