Ten rules for a happy ever after

Here are the 10 rules for a happy ever after according to the UK's dailymail...

 1. The best times are still ahead 
 2. Arguments are good for you 
 3. Learn to listen 
 
 4. Focus on comings and goings 
 5. Stop doing what doesn’t work 
 
 6. Find the positive angle 
 7. Understand that men and women have different attitudes to making love 
 
 8. Marriage is for ever; children are just passing through
 
 9. Don’t lose sight of yourself 
 
10. Remember why you fell in love with each other 


3rd Space - The difference between happiness and pleasure

The difference between happiness and pleasure

For the last six years Dr Adam Fraser has been researching how people flourish while fulfilling some of the hardest jobs in society. This ranged from special forces soldiers, palliative care nurses, leaders, working mothers and elite athletes. His research showed the common characteristic they shared was what they did in the transitional space (the third space) between the different roles, environments and tasks that they move between.

Most of us habitually carry our mindset and emotional state from one of these activities to the next - and all too often this has negative, occasionally disastrous consequences.

For years we've been told it's getting the 'big' stuff right that gives us balance and makes us happy: the holidays, the audacious goals, the pay rises. But in our hearts we know it's really the small stuff: a great result at work, our welcome home, an absorbing conversation, a game with the kids.

The Third Space is a book about getting the small stuff right - not 'sweating' it, but making it much more rewarding, much more often. It's about using the 'Third Space' (that moment of transition between a first activity and the second that follows it), to mentally 'show up' right for whatever comes next. 

According to Fraser, the average employee is interrupted every three minutes. Twenty-eight per cent of our day is spent recovering from distractions. The challenge we face is the way we transition between tasks, roles and environments for maximized performance. Fraser refers to these roles, environments and different tasks as 'spaces'.

"We spend our day transitioning between different spaces..."

• The First Space is the role/environment/task you are in right now; namely reading this article.

• The Second Space is the role/environment/task you are transitioning into, for example, you might be about to go into a meeting, or have your professional development reviewed.

• The Third Space is the transitional space in between the First and Second - and what we do in this transitional space will determine our level of success in the Second space.

When Happiness and Depression Meet

About a year ago I wrote about happiness and what it is that makes us happy. It turns out that what makes us happy, what motivates us, follows the philosophy of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. We do things for ourselves that help grow us and are important to us, we do things that we have to struggle with to improve ourselves, and we do things that make us part of a bigger world, and all of these three things have the capacity to make us happy or happier. Follow link below.

http://appliedpsychologyresearch.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/happiness-is-synthetic-so-why-not.html

I wanted today to check, basically, how users of Google search for information associated with happiness and depression. This is essentially search volume index over time. As you can see above there is a fascinating convergence between these two search volumes. As the search volume for Depression decreases over time, the search volume for Happiness has increased to almost the same volume matching Depression. Even when you ask Google to extrapolate these trends (in dotted lines) the trend continues.

Tax Time, happiness, and Donald Duck

Jack Dikian

April 2012

Just a few days ago it was Tax Day in the United States. In fact since 1955, for those living in the United States, Tax Day has typically fallen on April 15. So what you might ask. After all, you’re going to receive what you have overpaid in taxes throughout the year. Last year, for instance the Internal Revenue Service refunded $300 billion, or 25% of total monies collected. More than 80% of the 143 million returns filed resulted in a refund.

And even though paying more in taxes during the year than one actually owes amounts to an interest-free loan to the government, insights from behavioral economists suggest that many people, particularly lower-income Americans, use the tax system to force themselves to save. It shouldn’t surprise too many people that the Government is looking for ways to take advantage of what has been called “saveable moments” So it seems, for some families, tax time is a good time.

The other thing, filing a federal tax return wasn’t always an ingrained habit as it is these days. Most middle-class Americans didn't have to before World War II. The Revenue Act of 1942 made 15 million more people eligible to pay taxes. The Government explained this to the masses by commissioning Disney to make a short animated film using Donald Duck (click link below) that explained how to fill out a simple tax return, and why paying income taxes was so important.

Being a single drake with three dependents apparently got him a pretty sweet tax rate in 1942: Donald pays $13 in taxes on his $2,501 gross income. And this wasn’t just about Donald receiving a return but importantly, this was a propaganda cartoon with Donald exhorting people to pay their taxes on time or else risk giving aid and comfort to the Nazis. It was wartime after all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=00u6qUelp6c