“Today, I’m grateful for…” – Find out how this 21-day challenge changed this CEO’s life for the better! [Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles]
Miles Everson’s Business Builder Daily speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more.
A Note from Miles Everson:
Welcome to today’s edition of “Mindfulness by Miles!”
Every Friday, we talk about various topics that I find useful in my daily life. Our hope is you’ll be interested and compelled to apply the tips and lessons you learn from these articles in your personal life and career.
Today, we’ll discuss two secrets to experiencing lasting happiness.
Curious to know what these are?
Keep reading the article below.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Mindfulness by Miles
Tony Robbins is one of the top philanthropists and business strategists in the U.S. He is one of the leading voices in leadership psychology and is known for his infomercials, seminars, and self-help books like, “Unlimited Power” and “Awaken The Giant Within.”
As a life coach, he has made a BIG impact with his non-profit organization that focuses on feeding the hungry and empowering at-risk youth, prisoners, and homeless people.
Robbins’ charity had a humble beginning… and he is known to be generous well before he became wealthy. In fact, in one podcast episode of The Bulletproof radio, Robbins talked about how he began giving away his money when he was broke.
Let’s take a look at his story…
When Robbins was in the early years of his career, he experienced financial struggles. There was even a point when he only had USD 21 in his savings. To use his last few dollars, he decided to go to an eat-all-you-can buffet.
As he was eating, he saw a mother and son enter the restaurant. The son was polite—holding the door and pulling out the chair for his mom—and it touched Robbins. So, the next thing he did was he paid his bill, and gave his last USD 15 to the boy so he could buy his mom’s lunch.
According to Robbins:
“That time, I skipped home and I had no fear, no worry. It was the first time in my life where I was beyond scarcity. I remember I went home, I had no plan to figure out what to do the next day to eat, and I went to bed happy as a clam.”
At that moment, Robbins unlocked one of the fundamental ingredients for TRUE happiness: Selflessness.
Photo from hbr.org
According to MBO Partners CEO Miles Everson, hearing this story from the podcast made him realize a few things too. He learned that to achieve genuine and lasting happiness, he needs to practice gratitude, selflessness, and generosity.
How Selflessness Creates Lasting Happiness
Have you heard the term, “Positive Psychology?”
Basically, positive psychologists are happiness researchers. They look for the underlying causes of happiness—not brief pleasure that fades as quickly as it appears, but durable, authentic joy that persists throughout life.
One of the biggest discoveries of positive psychologists involves differences in the results of selfishness and selflessness:
- Selfish acts bring someone happiness in the short term. Selfish happiness fades quickly, and drives more selfish behavior from a person.
- Selfless acts bring lasting happiness because they weaken a person’s sense of separation from the world. Instead, selflessness creates a mental shift towards increased connectedness and eases feelings of loneliness and anxiety.
Selflessness also creates a positive feedback loop: Being selfless drives an individual to be more selfless, and in turn, he or she and the people around him or her experience genuine happiness.
Let’s now focus on selflessness’ close cousin, gratitude…
Everson talked about thankfulness in past articles and how it positively impacts one’s investment strategies and personal life. He strongly believes gratitude is a powerful and fundamental part of lasting happiness.
… and it’s not just Everson! Several studies have also found that gratitude rewires the brain for positivity. Researchers discovered even 2 weeks of simple thankfulness exercises such as sharing daily wins with friends or family, or writing down things to be thankful for make a person happier, more emotionally open, more optimistic, more productive, and more creative.
What else?
Everson says daily gratitude causes a long-term shift in one’s happiness and a long-term decrease in symptoms of depression.
This means what you put in your body determines what you get out of it. So, every time you focus on gratitude, you’re lighting up brain pathways associated with positivity and happiness.
The 21-Day Happiness Challenge
Everson states recently, he’s been seeing this challenge both online and offline. Some of his friends were even posting stories about their 21-day happiness challenge experiences on social media.
Curious as he was, he also jumped in on the bandwagon and tried the challenge. So far, the activity proves effective for him. Being in an attitude of selflessness and gratitude every day brings him long-lasting happiness.
He encourages you to try the 21-day happiness challenge too! To start:
- Do something selfless every day.
- List down 5 things you’re grateful for every night, before going to bed.
Everson says these things don’t have to be big. They can be as simple as buying coffee for the person in line behind you at your favorite coffee shop, or expressing gratitude that you have a stable job or a roof over your head.
What’s important is your consistency. Make it a daily habit to help those around you and appreciate even the little things in life.
Then, pay attention to how you feel throughout the 21 days. By the end of the challenge, Everson says you’ll feel you’ve become a happier and better person.
We hope you find today’s topic insightful and helpful!
Everson states if you have any comments or suggestions related to gratitude or selflessness, you may connect with and talk to him through his LinkedIn account.
Happy Friday!
(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.)
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles”
High-performance businesses are run by people who think and act differently.
In other words, these are people who are high-performing individuals.
Companies and individuals of this kind have found ways to escape the grind of commoditization and competition by focusing on the RIGHT goals.
High-performing businesses and individuals are also “return driven” businesses and “career driven” individuals. They conscientiously develop unique capabilities and resources that allow them to deliver offerings in ways no other firm or individual can.
Every Friday, we’ll publish tips and insights from MBO Partners and The I Institute’s “The Business Builder Daily” newsletter.
These will help you gain knowledge on the things that Miles Everson, the CEO of MBO Partners, often talks about regarding the future of the workforce.
We’ll also highlight other mindfulness advice on how you can be a high-performing individual both in your career and personal life.
Hope you’ve found this week’s insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s “Mindfulness by Miles!”
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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