Friday, October 10, 2014

Vishen Lakhiani - Why Happiness Is the New Productivity

Suresh sent me this link. Its a speech by Vishen Lakhiani, promoter of Mind Valley, a company voted to be one of the 10 most coolest workplaces.

Vishen Lakhiani shares how his life changed with a change in his mindset thanks to a seminar he attended. Money started flowing in, clients started coming in, they started enjoying the job, work only 45 hours a week - it was abundance in every way.

He talks of going in a state of flow.

He quotes the definition of flow from Wikipedia as 'a mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what she or he is doing by a feeling of energy focus, full involvement and success in the process of the activity. It is a state of supreme creativity.' 
Vishen says being in the state of flow  has two components to it - the first is being happy in the now and the second is to have a vision of the future. It is a delicate balance between being happy in the now and having a great vision of the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8ZFU4FoNvY

Vishen talks of the four states - negative spiral (not happy in the now and no vision of the future), current reality (happy now but no vision of future), stress (not happy and big vision of future) and ideal sate (happy now and grand vision of future).

Notice the moments when you are in a state of flow and keep yourself happy, says he. Make a conscious effort to be happy. Make it a practice to be happy. He calls it blissipline.

His company does some interesting things such as
1) Daily gratitude as a practice - they have a web site where one can share their gratitude
2) Awesomeness reports and meetings - where they share all successes of the previous week
3) Share profits with the employees - increase ownership in the real terms
4) Sweet sugar love machine - they share praise
5) 45 hour rule - no employee should work longer than 45 hours a week, which includes 5 hours of self-improvement work
6) Weekly sharing and training
7) Group meditation - every Tuesday
8) Company sponsored parties
9) Positive stamina - remember the good
10) Experiences and Connections - encourage these

Not bad at all. Worth emulating. Happiness my friend, is the new productivity. I agree. The video is about 40 minutes. But watch it, it could change your life. Be in a state of flow.

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