soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

The Happy Friday Series: The Happiness Crusade

By

Arminda_Lindsay.jpgOn the AllArminda blog, Arminda Lindsay wrote a post Oct. 23, 2013 sharing this story below about launching her happiness crusade. I extrapolate that blog post right her and make Arminda the subject of this Happy Friday Series. P.S. You can also find her writings at YumVeg.com where vegan food and cooking are her delight.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Arminda IRL at ConvergeSouth where I had the opportunity to keynote the content marketing track of that conference. During that time, she permitted me the opportunity to corral her into doing a Soulati Media On The Street (below).

(What I love about this post is that I get to combine my two faves into one — The Happy Friday Series and Soulati Media On The Street!)

Since our face-to-face, we’ve had a session during which we spoke about the journey from personal to professional blogger, and she’s received some homework to rocket launch her goals. I love this woman’s heart and spirit, watch and listen:

Arminda Lindsay Says:

On February 13, 2012, I started a 21-day “dopamine challenge” titled Creating Positive. Many of you joined me in that initiative (and it’s not too late to get started) because happiness is year-round and a lifetime journey. While there have been many changes in my life since I first penned that post, one thing is for sure: my heart is still full of gratitude. It’s so full that I keep writing out more and more.

My list is growing and I’m filling up notebooks. Pages and pages of things for which I’m grateful and/or that make me smile and bring me happiness. My list is very personal and unique to my life, as is your list. This is the reason I can pick up one of my notebooks and open to any page and start reading through my list and immediately begin to smile as I am instantly transported to another day, place, and moment in time that ignited a spark of joy in my heart.

Shawn Achor (whose TED Talk inspired me to start my own challenge) writes in his book The Happiness Advantage that

“. . . our attitudes and behaviors don’t only infect the people we interact with directly — like our colleagues, friends, and families — but that each individual’s influence actually appears to extend to people within three degrees. So when you. . . make positive changes in your own life, you are unconsciously shaping the behavior of an incredible number of people. . . . [T]here are nearly 1,000 people within three degrees of most of us. This is a true ripple effect — by trying to make ourselves happier and more successful, we actually have the ability to improve the lives of 1,000 people around us” (p201).

That’s empowering. To me, at least. And I love that by embracing the life I live I have the potential within me to positively impact the lives of thousands of other people. Thousands.

I can’t wait for happiness to find me like some elusive carrot forever dangling at the end of its proverbial stick. You will never reach it if that’s your aim. Your “I’ll be happy when _________ ” will forever evade you.

“Waiting to be happy limits our brain’s potential for success, whereas cultivating positive brains makes us more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive, which drives performance upward” (Achor 4).

Motivation? Efficiency? Resilience? Creativity? Productivity? Yes, please!

Happiness is now. Happiness is your choice. Happiness is within you.

Come on my happiness crusade and create positive in your life today, tomorrow and always! Will you join me?

The Happy Friday Series: Recipe For Happiness

By

San-Francisco.jpgDo you know that feeling you get when a realization hits you? When the solution to a question that’s haunted you for days, weeks – maybe even years – bubbles up from the deep and floats right in front of you, ripe for the picking? Well, the other day I finally got a moment like that, and it was around the issue of what truly makes me happy. The realization was a relief, too, because Jayme Soulati invited me quite a long time ago to write about happiness for her Happy Friday Series … and I didn’t know what to say until now.

But, it happened! I think I figured out my recipe for happiness.

I was talking on the phone with a friend about my summer. It was a lovely evening outside, but I was in my room on my bed and staring at the ceiling while chatting. I could have been talking on the phone while enjoying the weather from a park or the beach, but I wasn’t.
And all of a sudden I realized I was hiding inside, just waiting for tomorrow to start. I wasn’t really living.

I had recently started a phenomenal full-time internship (which I’m still enjoying) after transitioning from working a part time job as a concierge in a residential building on weekends and going to school full-time during the week. My new schedule blasted me into seventh heaven – I had weekends free again after two years! Hurrah! I expected feelings of freedom and a burgeoning new social life and boundless joy!

But I began to notice that I didn’t feel very different.

Now, I’m the kind of guy who likes to be active and do things out-and-about. I love hiking, biking, beaching, seeing shows, going to museums, and more. That’s one of the reasons I moved to San Francisco 10 years ago.

Introvert & Shy

But at my center, I am also an introvert – and yes, even shy. Extensive and prolonged interaction with people, especially new people, requires me to expend a lot of energy, and I have to recharge afterward.

So you can imagine that three eight-hour shifts of contractual obligation to smile, greet and be bubbly at my part-time job every weekend really wore me out. I left work every Saturday, Sunday and Monday and came directly home, made dinner and stared at some sort of mindless entertainment before passing out way too early so I could wake up equally as early to smile and be present for people all the next day.

Rinse and repeat, then school all week. Weekdays were spent attending lectures and doing homework. It was very much a routine, and there wasn’t really any time for doing the things I loved like getting out and enjoying the city I pay so much to live in. I was blessed with great opportunities to make it through school, but I wasn’t very happy.

I began to notice that even with evenings and weekends free on my new internship schedule, I was still operating as if I was
overextended – hoarding quiet time like it was the scarcest resource in the universe. I was hiding from the world to recharge. And the flip side of introverted self-care for me is that too much time alone leaves me feeling bored — and maybe even a little lonely.

So I found myself under-stimulated, bored and still unhappy.

Happiness Is A Balance

And that’s when it hit me – I realized that my happiness arises out of a balance of routine and adventure.

Doing the same old thing day in and day out makes me long for freedom or unstructured down-time. But then again, after too much time being totally free, I find myself mired in decision paralysis and unable to figure out anything to do other than vegetate in bed staring at the ceiling. And mind you I live in San Francisco – there is never a shortage of things to do here.

So this is what I think — happiness comes from a balance of the old and the new. The ratio of adventure-to-routine differs for everyone, but I definitely think that too much of either is a recipe for unhappiness.

I have made a pact with myself to do something new at least once a week, and it’s working out nicely! I’ve gone to the beach, the movies, and networking events. I know that I can embrDwayne-Alicie.jpgace routine, and as an introvert part of that routine must include hiding and recharging sometimes, but if I want to be truly happy, I have to come out of my shell and explore the world, too.

How do you find a balance between routine and adventure? Do you find they might be factors in your happiness?

About The Author

Dwayne Alicie lives in San Francisco and is wrapping up his undergraduate degree in marketing from San Francisco State University at the end of 2013. He tweets and blogs when he’s not studying, interning at Concur Technologies or hiding in his room imagining he is a pop star.

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

The Happy Friday Series: A Big Green Loving Pen

By

Paula-Kiger-jogging.jpgShe’s the mom of two and wife of one, thank goodness (because I’m not sure how any woman could manage TWO husbands ever; don’t you wonder why the woman in various religions isn’t the one to have multiple spouses?), and she’s also a runner. Paula Kiger recently ran for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and in support of Gareth with MCAD (you’ll have to ask her what that is).

Paula is a unique individual from her interesting Twitter handle @BigGreenPen to the Happy Friday Series she wrote here on Feb. 1, 2013.

She shared her happy while in traffic; Creating Optimism While In Traffic On Foursquare, actually.  She is a woman after my own heart as a Foursquare checker inner, a 12Most.com author and a peer blogger on the path. But what most intrigues me about Paula is the fact that she dashed over here to write the fourth in the series of Happy Friday posts, and I hadn’t had the wonderment of being introduced to her.

And, Paula gets the award, amongst about 45 guest authors, for the most interesting angle and take on happiness. Who the heck is ever happy while sitting in doggone traffic? Especially at the “Punishment Light?”

You can find Paula’s blog here, called Persipacity, and there she writes about wonderful topics (I assume with a Big Green Pen) like motherhood, teens in the workforce, and humanitarianism. When you read her blog post I provided the link to, you’ll find an effervescence and natural sincerity in Paula’s genuine nature.

I’m so happy she made us all happier getting to know someone who gives of herself unto others with love. It’s so obvious to me without truly have the privilege of knowing Paula IRL, that she’s the real deal.

PAULA?! Thank you for contributing right here and being part of this happy family.

 

The Happy Friday Series: What Is Silver Is Gold

By

Susan-Silver-screen-shot.jpgOn January 25, 2013, Ms. Susan Silver cheerily volunteered to write the second installment in our The Happy Friday Series, The Top 5 Cheery Songs. You know this series is “our” series because I didn’t write it, all y’all did!

If you missed last Friday’s installment, let me update you…the series is taking a turn to you. Thanks, huge and glorious thanks to each and every one of you who contributed to the longest-running series a blog has ever known (is that true? I have no idea, but it sounds true to me). There have  been 38 guest posts from mostly 38 different people.

Susan was the second to join in. Thank you, Lady, for your interest, support, ‘raderie, and #RockHot awesome.

Don’t know Susan? She blogs here at Cirque du Mot, which means “life is a circus.” When you hit her website, that is constantly changing, she puts right on the front, “Friendship is a communicable disease, spread the infection.”

What’s also on the home page is Susan is the community manager for  Gygax Magazine. (You’ll need to ask her what that is…Hey, Susan! What is that?)

Where you can find Susan blogging most frequently is right here, at 12Most. Her latest article there explains a lot. She’s in to Dungeons & Dragons! Remember that game?

Susan is one of the most endearing people you’ll meet on the interwebz. She has a knack for quirk and an amazing ability to DIY tech and API stuff. Anyone who does that is my hero.

I’ve watched her come alive; nearly completely out of her shell. We finally get to see an avatar with her picture, and I’m so excited because she’s been hiding for some time.

Susan, you go, go, go…it’s my pleasure to know you and watch your confidence blossom in your writing.

Susan Silver, thanks for your Happy Friday; you are #RockHot!

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

The Happy Friday Series: Positively Peggy

By

Peg-Fitzpatrick.jpgWhen I launched this series on Jan. 11, 2013 quite by happenstance, I had no idea where it would go, what it would become, or how I would write on happiness every Friday. I instinctively invited the very happiest person I know online and with whom I’ve never spoken or met, to kick off the first official guest post for the series.

She accepted my invitation with relish, and did me and us justice; The Happy Friday Series was official and rolling.

Every Friday since January, I’ve been jazzed with a cadre of #RockHot guest authors. People who have shared their most personal thoughts and feelings, and people who have shared their passions about what puts smiles in their hearts. The series hasn’t been off the hook giggles; it’s been about life and the pursuit of happiness. Sometimes we find that happy in odd ways, with one little bit of graciousness and generosity.

As the series has continued and my invitations to many to author here have become more sparse and peoples’ time has become less to commit, I’m turning the tables to you.

This series is taking a turn; it’s my turn to thank each and every one of you for your generosity of sharing and caring right here.

And, so, today, I thank Peg Fitzpatrick for her spirit and generosity for kicking off this series right here.

Peg, Positively Peggy, writes a blog that is always generous. She’s a teacher extraordinaire, she shares happiness for real with her community, and if you don’t follow her, you’re truly lacking.

Peggy is one of those sincerely genuine nurturers and givers. She puts herself last, she puts her community first.

She’s a managing partner at 12Most.com, she manages the Google+ community for APE, The Book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch, she is on all social channels, and she’s writing her own book. If you link to that blog post of hers, you’ll get a positive sense of this woman’s creativity and how she teaches you with relentless giving.

May I say, she’s forever in smiles, too?

Please give Peggy a nod your way; she will imbue positivity and inspire creativity — promise.

Peg Fitzpatrick, thank your for your Happy Friday. You are #RockHot!

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta