Gratitude for the past year - looking forward to the next

This past year has been amazing for me.

I got to go to India on business to speak at a Happy Workplace Conclave put on by my new friend Mukund Trivedy. While there I got to speak to the teachers at the Shri Ram Schools about how to stop bullying in the classroom using behavioral science.

I was asked by Business Ethics Press to write a book about Applied Humanism in Business Management (first draft done) to come out in the next year.

I have published a lot of my talks as DVDs, streaming videos, paperback books, ebooks, audio books and online courses. https://amzn.to/2r4VWCH

I am a board member of the USA Chapter of the International Humanistic Management Association and have been interviewing experts in humanistic management in HRCI & SHRM approved online webinars. http://humanisticmanagement.international/videos-from-ihma/

And starting tomorrow - I am a board member for the Center for Freethought Equality. http://www.cfequality.org/

This is all in addition to my regular work of providing personal and professional development training programs to individuals and groups - which you should totally check out and hire me for your group. https://humanistlearning.com/jennifer-hancock/

What will happen next year? I don't know - but I hope I get the opportunity to share my knowledge with even more people and if someone wants to hire me to do a training in India, Japan, England, German, China or really - anyway - please let me know.  In particular - I would like to be in Mumbai around the time of Shahrukh Khan's birthday. Hint hint.

For now, as I reflect on the past year, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I am both amazed at how much love I experience and see in the world with good people doing good work trying to make their corner of the world - better.

There is a lot of fear in the world. I feel it too. But I chose, as a Humanist, to focus on what I can do, here and now, to make things better. For myself, my family, the people I know and the world in general. I hope you will do the same.

Jennifer Hancock Dec 31st 2018 - Looking forward to what the future brings.

What am I thankful for?

Reflecting on what makes my life worth living.

Every night before I go to sleep, I take the time to run through a list of what I am grateful for in my life. Or rather, who I am grateful for. Because what matters to me isn’t the tv I have, or rather don’t have.  What matters to me are the people who I am lucky enough to share my life with.

I am thankful for my husband. He keeps me calm and helps me in a myriad of ways. He’s cute and funny and nice and handy to have around. I genuinely like being around him and having him in my life and every night before I go to sleep, I think to myself how much I love him.

I also think about how thankful I am to have my son. He’s funny and cute and a good cuddler and smart and interesting and I love hanging around with him too.  He is a joy to spend time with, even when he is annoying me (most of the time anyway). I genuinely like him so in addition to thinking about how much I love my husband I also think about how much I love my son.

The final think I think about before I go to sleep is how thankful I am to be alive. After all, I just as easily might not have been. And then, to quote Dr. Seuss I’d be a wasn’t and a wasn’t has no fun at all, no he doesn’t.  Being alive is, if you’ll forgive me, a miracle. I have no intention of wasting it. So every night, just before I go to sleep, I think about how much I love being alive, despite what all might be going on to annoy or upset or scare me.

Having done that I find I am in a happy contented mood and I fall easily asleep. I suppose you could consider this routine a sort of pre-sleep meditation. But it works for me and I am reminded every day what my true priorities are.

What are you thankful for?

Are you content?

Wouldn't it be nice to answer yes to that question? If you don’t, let me answer it for you, yes it is. Most of the time I feel like I exist in a state of stupid happy contented bliss. Not all the time obviously, but a lot. More than average I suspect. And no, I don’t achieve that state through drugs. I get there naturally. Here is how I do it.

I set aside time every day to reflect on who I am, what I want, why I want it, what I already have and more. I use my quiet reflection time to think about the people I live who I am really glad they are in my life, and what all is good in my life and the fact that yeah, despite it all, I am pretty happy and content. Life isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t need to be. Call it meditation if you like, but I am a firm believer that if you don’t take time to reflect, you won’t find time to be content.

Another thing I do is I define success in a personal way as opposed to a material way. What I mean by this is that if you define success by having a certain job, or a certain amount of money or a certain object, you are never going to be content. Those are things. They don’t bring happiness. If, instead, you define success by whether or not you are living up to your potential as a human being and/or whether you have good relationships, those are things you can accomplish regardless of what else you have going on.

The final thing I do to achieve contentment is to actively and intentionally practice compassion. When we are thinking of ourselves and focused on our wants and needs, which are many, we isolate ourselves within our own heads. However, when we consider other people with compassion, we not only behave better, we also feel connected to other people. The way to get rid of that feeling of being alone in the universe is to feel compassion. It’s the reason every major religion and philosophy throughout history teaches compassion.

So there you have it. Reflect on happiness, make personal happiness your goal, and practice compassion with everyone you meet.  

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