“If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else.”
– Chinese Proverb
Hi Everyone,
I’ve been thinking about how we need to be focused on growing not just coping. This isn’t an April fool’s joke. In the last two years, each of us have suffered in little to big ways. It could be something as inconvenient as wearing a mask, as stressful as worrying about getting sick, or as tragic as losing someone you know to COVID. The whole time, you’ve been worried on some level about your health and the health of those that you love. This put you in a heightened state of stress over the last couple of years and activated your coping mechanisms.
Coping mechanisms come in all shapes and sizes; they can be healthy or unhealthy but usually it’s a mixture of both. These defense mechanisms are very important and help you manage stressful situations. It makes perfect sense, but we aren’t supposed to go through life with coping mechanisms as our life strategy. The quality of your life is based on your growth as a person.
Before COVID, each of you was on a journey to grow and move forward in life, whatever that may be for you – getting married, having kids, getting promoted into a new job, learning something, enjoying your hobbies, and/or expressing your creativity. You were focused on your growth as a person, partner, and professional.
I am suggesting that you take inventory of your current life routine/habits. What were you doing a lot of before COVID as compared to now? Are there any really positive growth habits that have taken a back seat over the last couple of years? Have you swapped a coping mechanism for a growth habit in the last couple of years? I wrote a whole Desk of Brad about spending more time doing things that help you become more centered. How you spend your time is directly correlated with a happy and healthy life. Stephen Covey asked a simple question – “are your daily activities in alignment with your goals?”
I started Tahzoo to be a place of growth, where your job and your work would be part of your personal sense of growth and wellbeing. That we could be a mission driven and profitable company, that growth could be measured in employee satisfaction and revenue. I am calling on each of you to take some time to reflect and focus on how you could be growing instead of coping. Think of me as your barber or bartender. I am always here to chat with you, to just listen, or provide advice if requested. It’s springtime, let’s start fresh and finish this year stronger than ever.
Let’s go be great…
Brad