“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

As times change Quotients change! It wasn’t long when intelligence quotient was considered to be the deciding factor in peoples careers.Then the Emotional Quotient was added to the list to decide persons effectiveness about managing people. IQ+EQ together now form the basis of measuring the effective capability of a person as a Manager or as a Entrepreneur. Many books have been published on these 2 quadrants and how they could be applied to succeed. Dale Carnegie introduced EQ as a deciding factor in being a successful people manager. 

While EQ+IQ together are serving their purpose of helping people to grow in their careers, the person internally is still struggling managing his own feelings. The feelings of anxiety, stress, loneliness, unfulfilled are still inside him, haunting him every day. Though he mastered the art of EQ and got well on solving technical issues, his personal well being is always challenged. What’s missing is the third dimension to these quadrants. A new quadrant that unplugs the weeds in mind, the Happiness Quadrant.

Ignoring self is detrimental in persons well being. Even if he masters the first two quadrants he now has to master this third quadrant. Why is it so important to be balanced with this quadrant?

Life of people has changed a lot since the early age of industrial revolution. Increasing workload, competition, lifestyle change, fast changing economic cycles which include recession and economic boom makes people work lot more in stressful conditions. Health issues are rising like never before. Humans aspirations are taking a flight. Comparison with other folks and their wealth is always happening within families. Knowldge is getting outdated every single day. What remains unchanged is the capacity of human heart to pump blood to the organs, the capacity of eyes to stretch for selected hours, capacity of spine to support one posture for some time, capacity of stomach to tolerate junk food to certain extent. Going beyond their capacities means stretching them beyond their limits.

The net effect of stress, hectic life style is high blood pressure, sense of insecurity, feeling unfulfilled. The solution is simple. Know the Happiness Quadrant well and implement it every day.

What is Happiness Quadrant?

It is conditioning of mind to recognize what is good at all times and hooking on to it irrespective of the external environment. Now, that seems to be a bit complicated isn’t it? Let’s simplify. Every moment brings some change, it could be change in climate, other people, their behavior, their expectations, change in government rules and regulations, change in economy, change in opportunities, market and many more. Human mind tries to relate to these changes by identifying them as opportunities or problem. Opportunities are those one sees as those that would bring in reward to the person while problem is that event which does not meet persons expectations based on his belief system. If the stock market is turning bearish which means his stocks are going to go down, a person sees that as a problem. While its true that it will impact the returns for the investment, it certainly not the deciding factor in making person sad or happy. That’s because there would be a million opportunities to make a fortune that could come his way if he learns about how to handle the thoughts that moment. Dropping stock price is just an event but whats causing anxiety and sadness is the co-relation of this drop to dropping fortune for the person. He wont go without food if the stock prices are dropping. Its very hard to let go of this feeling but that is exactly what is required since the external events are beyond human control. Whats within control is his ability to act upon a change. Many people when they know the stock market is spiraling downward take action to move their investments while those who get stuck in their feeling often loose the money. Its a game to be learnt. Happiness quotient teaches one to stay in a state of blissfulness when thing are going well and when they are not so going well. It has been observed that those people who learn to be blissful have lived long life. Take example of Jeaner Calment (lived 122 years), Sarah Knauss (lived 119 years). Jeane led a wonderful life and she cherished all her hobbies like tennis, cycling, rollerskating etc. Sarah Knauss once mentioned ” “I enjoy it because I have my health and I can do things.”. She enjoyed watching golf, sewing clothes.

How to Master Happiness?

A rule of thumb, follow a blissful life. A life which is beyond recognition, failures, events. To lead such life there are some rituals one could practice to be in this domain.

• Be grateful to what you have. Be grateful to people around, the nature, god, parents, wife, kids and most important self.
• Decide what is your life’s purpose. What brings good to you as human being.
• Give something from your share in charity. The best would be your time and attention.
• Derive good out of every event. Even a seemingly negative event has a higher good in it. That is why the events happen. From the big bang till today, all events have enriched human race.
• Know the connection between people? We all are connected.
• Find that area in our mind that always longs to be happy, contented, peaceful, loving, calm. Try to stay in that area.
• Do good each day.
• Learn a new skill.
• Form a new habit.
• Gaze stars at night. Star gazing makes us think how tiny we are but within this tiny existence we can do a lot.
• At work do your best to serve people. Do not expect the outcome of your act to favor you. By doing good you are serving the universe in its development.
• If you make a mistake learn how to do better next time. Do not blame yourself for you gave your best shot.
• Many discussions at work are based on How good I am and How poor you are. Get out of that psychosis. Even if someone is projecting something focus on the agenda of growth, development, doing good.
• Do not compete. It doesn’t mean that you do not give your best shot, it only means do not set limits to your creativity.
• Each day you could learn a lesson from Zen.

These are some of the steps you could follow to master the third quadrant. With IQ+EQ+HQ, now you are complete within. When you are complete within your path to SUCCESS and PEACE is assured.