When I’m unhappy I tend to shut down.  I get distracted.  I focus on the unhappiness.  The lens through which I see the world shrinks.  When I’m unhappy I’m very much less interested in exploring, discovering new things, or sharing enthusiastically.  Sometimes when I’m unhappy I sulk or pout.  I spend too much time thinking about blame, loss, and discontent when I’m unhappy.  When I’m unhappy I don’t feel so good.

When I’m happy, I feel really good.  I look for things to learn and ways to learn them.  I smile and I laugh.  I’m playful and pleasant to be around.  I find joy in relatively unassuming ideas.  When I’m happy, simply going for a walk can be exhilarating.  I often see and realize incredible stuff.  Sometimes, when I’m happy, I notice exciting things like wildflowers, caterpillars, and fluffy moss on tree bark that I might have otherwise overlooked.  When I’m happy, I share enthusiastically.  I think that happiness is an important part of learning.  When I’m happy I feel good.  When I’m happy, I feel like learning.  When I’m happy, I feel like there are all kinds of positive possibilities.

To me, one of the most important things that a parent or an educator can do is work hard at building a culture of happiness.  I try to do just that by looking at things from a positive and optimistic perspective, and by working hard to highlight that perspective in my words and in my actions.  Because I don’t always get it right, because I don’t always hit the mark, and because I know that there’s a long road of learning and growth ahead of me, I insert the ambition for ongoing and shared happiness in the scaffolding of my reflective process.

When I think about where I’ve been, what I’ve experienced, where I’m headed, and how I aim to get there, I always ask myself, “will this path contribute to enhanced happiness for me and for those I serve?”  That question helps me focus on what’s important to me.  It reminds that being happy helps people learn, even when they struggle through challenges.  It helps me feel good, and I believe that it increases my ability to affect others in positive ways.  If I’m right, that increased ability might serve me well as a husband, a father, an educational leaders, and so on.  If I’m wrong, I still feel better when I focus on being happy…and that seems good to me.

Dream Big.  Work Hard.  Be Well.