A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
By Ivan Honey, Senior Faculty, WGI, Founder The Get Happier School Project.
Many people have wished me a Happy New Year, and I thank you, each and every one.
But, what does it mean to be happy?
Today is January 2, and I just received an email from a participant in a Get Happier workshop in Shenzhen in 2019. I was introducing the Get Happier School program at the QSI International School with Dr Scott D’Alterio.
She shared how the Get Happier mindset had enabled her not only to overcome some real health and relationship challenges, but also to decide to move to the USA to build her professional career.
The universal human quest for happiness, meaning and purpose is the key driver of all behaviour. Advertisers and marketers know this, and every message they send will seek to persuade you that their product will make you happier. They will tell you that if you use their product that you will be safer, healthier and wealthier: you will be popular and loved: you will be more powerful and successful: you will have more choices and opportunities, and life will be more fun. Those of us who are familiar with Dr Glasser’s basic needs can see how the above strategies for selling and motivation are behind all advertising.
Most of us decided to learn and apply the psychology of choice because we experienced how it helped us get happier. We recognised that understanding ourselves and others gives us the best chance to create a satisfying life that transcends the quick fix approaches to happiness that rely on external factors. Giving up trying to control others or allowing others to control us, left us with a lot of space to create our own lives. Once we understood that we had the ability to get happier at any time, we were able to live our lives less dependent on transitory, external sources of happiness.
For this reason, I am always up front about our Choice Theory program, The Get Happier Project. The name itself is reflecting the universal desire for happiness. But it is about gettinghappier, not implying that we should always be happy but rather building the resources to maintain our own unique, personal wellbeing. The universal engineering principles required to build a skyscraper are the same, but each building will differ depending on the unique and individual requirements of the site, the purpose of the building and the design features. So likewise, while happiness is different for each one of us, the blueprint remains the same.
Dr Glasser’s Choice Theory psychology blueprint was adapted to make this mental model available to all, especially to young people in order to give them a framework to manage the challenges and opportunities of their lives.
This is the reason why we created The Get Happier School Program.
The fun metaphor is simple and easy to understand and apply.
As an example, just before the end of 2022, following a one day introduction to the Get Happier model in a Senior Secondary school, I was thanked for the day’s workshop by a staff member whose beautiful and simple summary I share below. Using the language of the Get Happier model, it articulates the key components for wellbeing that they learnt during the day session.
Today was a day to reflect, collaborate and give ourselves a mental health tune up.
It is the end of the year and our:
Fuel is running low
Windscreens may be dirty,
Wheels could be wobbly,
And our engine running rough:
So program the magic questions into your GPS,
Jump in the driver’s seat, grab the steering wheel and head towards the open roads!
The original Choice Theory model may use the following language: Same message, different language.
Today was a day to understand and evaluate our choices in order to improve our mental health.
It is the end of the year and our:
Perceptual filters may be in need of review,
Our choices and total behaviour may manifest imbalance in our physiology and feelings, and
Our basic needs may not be being met constructively:
So, choose to self-evaluate using the Reality Therapy process,
Recognise that the only behaviour you can control is your own,
Get clear on what you really want (your Quality World),
And every day, choose the Connecting habits.
Choice Theory has been taught in many and varied ways in over 60 countries and thousands of settings, using different language, models and frameworks. We always need to adjust our language in order to best convey the essential message, which always depends on our audience and the learning context. This has been the mission of the Get Happier School Project as we utilise the mental model of ‘The Journey of Life’. The titles of the different class programs, ‘Ready, Set ,Go’, ‘Life’s an Adventure’, ‘The Magic in Life’ and ‘Get Happier in Action’, reflect the excitement and energy of this metaphor.
Because this empowering framework worked so well for us personally, and for our families, children, clients and employees, we recognised the moral imperative to share this with as many people as possible. In particular we believe it is the birthright of our children to be taught the framework required to survive and thrive in an unpredictable world.
This is a practical and readily available process to not only prepare our children for the future, but at the same time, create a culture of wellbeing in our schools. Adults enjoy it too! We now have a number of innovative schools successfully using and extending the program, and have just completed a new revised printing of our core resources.
I invite you to visit our website, www.gethappier.net and follow this link https://mailchi.mp/a8c3a9613a87/newsletter-the-get-happier-school-term-2-5370352?e=3d5dbb0633 to our latest newsletter. From this, you can also access previous newsletters. I am always happy to talk with school based people to explain how the program can make a real difference in their school, and equally, to invite those who would like to facilitate or be involved in the program to contact me.
A useful article from Nancy Herrick, (Senior Faculty in the USA) linking the Get Happier Program to the Glasser Quality School is also available if you copy and paste this link in your browser. https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:b2fd7fb9-dc00-3438-9c43-1d331f2c0098
Finally, I take this opportunity to thank all of my colleagues who have been a part of the Get Happier Journey, and to wish everyone a Happy New Year!
Ivan Honey
0413239391
