This is Pursuit of Happiness Week.

Happiness is a good thing to pursue at any time, especially if you feel like you are going through hell and trying to figure out to get through it.

Here is a  great morale and productivity boosting meeting idea to use at any time…especially appropriate during Pursuit of Happiness Week.   And especially helpful when you are going through hell.   

For about three years, I had the pleasure of facilitating the Women’s Roundtable group for our local Chamber of Commerce.  As the last agenda item for one of our meetings, I divided participants into groups of four and asked each group to make a list (on newsprint) of things to be happy about – at work, at home – anything at all that made them happy.   I gave them 5 minutes to make their lists.

After 5 minutes, I pulled them all together and we posted the newsprint lists on the wall and gave everyone a chance to review.   There were a few questions and a few giggles and jokes about a number of items on the list.

It was an uplifting experience.  A great reminder that we didn’t need to DO a whole lot to find happiness.  That there was much to be happy about right “here”.

After the meeting, I had the newsprint lists converted into a one-page list (see below).  After getting rid of duplicates, we still had 70 things on the list!  We  sent it to everyone as a PDF file – easy to print or post as a reminder  to ENJOY all the many happy parts of our lives!

You can do this too and also print it out and post at various places in the office – as a gentle reminder.    May be just the boost needed to help us “keep going” through the parts of life that seem like hell right now.

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Here’s our list.  What’s on yours?

copyright 2009 – Business Class Inc