U for U-Turn to happiness
How to raise a successful and happy child? The U turn to happiness?
It's a little bit damp and dreary here up in North Yorkshire. But that doesn't seem to, for some reason, be affecting my mood. I wonder why that is. People that that tune in to these broadcasts might know the reason why but, my friends and viewers, all is going to be revealed if that is seeming a little bit too cryptic.
You may know, you may have already got to the solution because you've seen the title, the U turn to happiness. Okay, so the U turn to happiness What's that all about? Well, I could actually do a U turn today. Or I could do a full 360. Because yesterday, my new chair arrived. And I am very proud to say I put it up myself, not put it up myself, I assembled it myself. I'm not the most practical guy. And you probably gathered that from what I talk about, however, and the implications of what I do say are incredibly, incredibly practical if we are looking for happiness and we're looking to point our children in the right direction to happiness.
So what do I mean about the right direction to happiness? What the hell is - oops, sorry. What the heck is the U turn to happiness? Well, I used to think that the answer elsewhere. And the answer in my quest for happiness existed outside me. So one of my missions, one of the objectives that I set with a business coach quite a few years ago was ‘smiling Simon leading sustainable success’. And I thought that the success, the sustainable success, meant on-going success. On-going business success would lead me to become smiling Simon.
And so I was looking outside me and most of us are, whether we realise it or not. So, as adults, we're looking for the new house that's going to make us happy, or the new job that's going to make us happy, or the end of lockdown that's going to make us happy or the holidays that we can go on when lockdown ends that will make us happy. Or the jobs, houses, holidays. Or watches. Yeah, watches, shirts. This shirt will make me happy. And we're looking outside us and we need to do a U turn. Well, why do we need to do a U turn?
Because every feeling you've ever wanted, including happiness, lies inside you. Right? I have said this before but I will say again because it is such a monumental insight from my good friend and mentor Richard Wilkins. This, the chest, I think it's a 40 inch chest. Sometimes it's 38, my 40 inch chest, my 38 inch chest was 42 inches, lost a bit of weight. A little bit more, can't swim at the moment, I'm looking forward to the end of lockdown when I can go swimming.
But yes, my chest, our chest, your chest is a treasure chest. It's full of the most incredible gems and jewels. The most incredible gift, the most incredible gifts, every feeling that you've ever wanted is inside you right now. So the U turn is instead of driving down the road, looking for happiness outside us, it's to turn back and go within and go to our chest where happiness exists.
And you're all kind of saying that I'm totally deluded, I can only point you to what I see. And I couldn't see this stuff myself for a long time. It took me ages to see it. I'm going to sign off with a question. And that question is really a question. Some of you will know this, a question marks at the end of the hook. And I'm hoping that the hook that this question is going to draw from within you, is to see where happiness comes from. So my question to you is how come happy memories make you feel happy? And how come things that you're looking forward to in the future to make you happy too, if feelings come from the world outside you?