Once you get to the end of this post you will be happier, healthier and have the kind of general sense of wellbeing that you wouldn’t typically expect to find on LinkedIn.
Except, what if you’re not?
What if, unwisely, you truly began to believe that simply reaching the end of this post was a goal that would reward you in all the ways that matter most to you. Then you’re essentially pinning your hopes for a happy life on the completion of something rather than the experience of it.
It’s an incredibly common state of mind, so much so that it even has a name: the arrival fallacy.
Its where we picture a certain point in our professional or personal future – usually the obvious stuff like a promotion, a raise, a bonus etc. – and we decide, without any sense of self reflection, that crossing that self-imposed line will be the point at which contentment magically kicks in.
And because we’ve essentially set a timer on the commencement of happiness, we stop trying to pursue and maintain happiness in our lives before we reach that line.
I’d like to say in my experience as a business leadership coach that your company are looking out for you in this regard, and helping you set better goals and behaviours. The sad reality though is that they’re probably either doing nothing or they’re making it worse through the maddening old culture of incentivising people solely through extrinsic reward (i.e. the promotion, the bonus, the shiny blah blah blah).
The arrival fallacy is one of the most injurious beliefs we can hold, as humans and as professionals. We deny ourselves happiness now to pursue an ill-considered goal, only to find, when we ‘arrive’ at our so-called achievement, it doesn’t make us feel the way we thought it would.
Happiness, for the good of the self, the wellbeing of a company culture, and the productivity of a business, is never something you should tie too tightly to a faraway goal. Especially if that goal is the wrong one.
#business #leadership
#ceo #coaching #psychology
#wellbeing