A recent report  by the OECD listed the happiest nations in the world and Australia is not in the Top 10!!.

New Zealand made number 8 - congrats to our friends "over the Ditch"

1. Denmark,

2. Finland

3. the Netherlands

6. Canada

7. Switzerland

10. Belgium

(The report looked at subjective well-being, defined as life satisfaction. Did people feel like their lives were dominated by positive experiences and feelings, or negative ones?)

Neither Australia or The United States cracked the top 10.

Having just attended the Happiness and its Causes conference - we have to ask Why are we so unhappy?

here are some thoughts by Jeff Stibel (an entrepreneur and brain scientist.)...

"Let's start by looking at the origin of the word. Happy is derived from the Icelandic word happ, meaning luck or chance. Is happiness then, by its very definition, elusive due to its randomness? Nassim Taleb certainly thinks so, as he expressed in his bestselling book Fooled by Randomness. But this is clearly not the case for the top 10 happiest countries.

In his book, The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, the Dalai Lama — arguably a very wise and happy man — suggests that true happiness can be attained only by training the mind.

So much for Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert's notion of Stumbling on Happiness (despite the title, he too argues that we can train our minds to be happier).

With that in mind, here are a number of suggestions that I hope can turn our collective frowns upside-down:

1. Smile.

2. Stop worrying.

3. Take a break.

4. Do things differently.

5. Stop managing and start leading.

6. Delegate.

7. Have fun.

Read full article

What are your tips for being happier at work?
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