Stephen H Baum Leadership

Among the financially successful business leaders with whom I work is a wide range of unhappiness or happiness. For a long time, I have explored this topic along with how they define success, their inner thoughts about life and work. Here is what emerged last evening from a conversation about this with one of my sons who is a writer and creator of tv shows. I have written it in the negative mode for emphasis and to stimulate thought  rather than prescribe solutions.

How to make yourself unhappy:

1. Spend a lot of time doing what you dont like and below minimum of what you do like most
2. Make sure you maximize time spent with people who upset you
3. Let society’s metrics for success (money, power and appearance) drive you rather than what you value most
4. Get really good at negative thinking, especially sustained negative thinking
5. Be unmindful of how many times today negative emotions welled up inside of you or how often you dwelled on negative thoughts
6. Put your ego front and center where it will be bruised, then defend it and let it drive your behavior
7. React quickly when you feel disrespected or frustrated by others
8. Pay attention to what you can see needs your attention but don’t carve out time to work on the invisibles (e.g., deterioration in relationships, health)
9. Never take time to be grateful for all the blessings you have received
10. Be a victim in your own life

That’s my view. What’s yours?