3 Power Questions that Lead Others to a Happy New Year
Those who seek happiness by avoiding discomfort, meet dissatisfaction along the way.
Meaningful discomfort is part of happiness.
4 reasons people end up halfhearted and fully unhappy:
- Too many options. Keeping all our options open blocks meaningful commitment.
- Too many easy commitments. The path to satisfaction is going in fewer directions with greater energy.
- Too much self-protection. Commitments feel dangerous. But the real danger is never making them.
- Too many exceptions. An exception is an expensive lie. Being late to meetings and lack of follow-through begin with ‘next time’ thinking. Eventually easy exceptions become destructive habits.
3 power questions to lead others to a happy new year:
#1. What can you pour yourself into? Invite them to pour themselves into something meaningful. Gusto is cousin to happiness. Dabblers become unhappy complainers. A halfhearted life produces full unhappiness.
Apathy never makes you happy.
#2. How might you stretch yourself? Encourage them to rise to new challenges. The path to happiness often includes discomfort.
Ease produces temporary happiness and long-term boredom.
#3. What can you commit to do? Challenge them to make commitments. (Accept small commitments at the beginning. No one proposes on the first date.)
A commitment is a decision made once.
4 benefits of a meaningful commitment:
- Freedom to take action.
- Courage to act, even if others don’t.
- Energy to keep going when others quit.
- Clarity to eliminate distractions and focus on what matters.
If you want to lead others into a happy new year, lead them into meaningful discomfort and support them along the way.
How might leaders lead others into a happy new year?
Perfect questions to begin the year, or month, or week, or day! These questions begin the dialogue about getting better! They are great questions for schools, learning teams, or to ask our students! Thanx!
Happy Learning and Leading!
Thanks Dayna. Sometimes we are frustrated with people’s performance so we push them. What we should do is help them clarify their commitments.
You don’t push people who have made commitments you support them.
Dear Dan.
A very Happy New year.
Really amazing post. I sometimes get stuck in recognising teammates who are committed and who are not.
What are the universal symptoms?
Reds,
Chandrakant
Wow. This is one of the most useful articles I’ve ever read.
I just wanted to thank you for all the amazing content. I really appreciated this post specifically because it turns the “New Year” in a completely new way.
I think your 3 questions are brilliant and I will be sharing your posts on my morning video this morning and encourage people to come read this amazing post!
Thank you again.
Thanks John. You are a real encouragement to me. Here’s to a happy new year!
Thanks for sharing the message with your audience.
Hi Dan,
Thank you for your post today. I think it is always helpful to reflect on your commitment to personal and professional goals. I often struggle with keeping my options open and can get lost in thinking I’m going to be available/flexible when really I end up ‘stuck’. I will keep this post in mind as I work with my staff to review our goals for the spring semester.
Best,
Jan
Great post! Thank you. Really liked the comment that “The path to happiness often includes discomfort.” I would add it also leads to a meaningful sense of purpose. Without purpose, there is very little happiness.
Hi Dan – wonderful post to reflect on as we enter the new year. Thank you.
Dan, you are preaching to me — again! Thanks much. I enjoy doing so many things and can’t do them all. Some do sit on the shelf, literally and so-to-speak, but I still have too many I try to do. Need to decide what I want my priorities to be and focus.
Thanks, Dan, for the reminder. Great message.
Alan
Dear Dan, Thanks for the wonderful post , The word happiness nowadays seems to be subjective and direction oriented , subjective means the feeling of happiness can be different for different person ..
Love the message that leaving one’s comfort zone is necessary for real growth & happiness. Leading others through discomfort is exactly what describes the task of a coach. Thanks for the good post.