I’ve had four people ask me about happiness in the last week. I give better answers after I’ve had a chance to think – so this blog brings together a few themes from September.

I’m most happy when I’m serene. Because serenity doesn’t look happy – the people around me often wonder if I’m ok.  I’m doing great, thanks.

Over the past two weeks I’ve been thinking about three themes: Young Children; Noise; and the Role of Technology in my life.

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Young Children

When Lex (our oldest) was born, I intuitively knew that the main goal of childcare was to keep her alive. This isn’t a joke. I think health & safety is #1 for what we can bring young kids.

What I struggled with was the lack of measurable goals, targets, metrics or anything associated with kids. With a two, or three, year old… there’s not much to achieve.

I thought: What’s going to be most valuable to me at 65 or 75 years old?

I answered: Friendship, companionship and love.

So I’m focusing on two things with Lex: health & safety (always #1) and demonstrating love to the people around her. 

After a disappointing trip in August, I changed a few things for this family vacation.

Rotate the kids with more adults than children. We had one day where all the adults were with all the kids, all day.  We were SHOT by nightfall.  The days where we split up time with Lex went a lot better.

Pace myself with a lot of sleep and never get “too tired.” 

Remove time pressure.  This was the most valuable insight for me. Everything with children takes twice as long as I’d expect. That’s ok because I don’t want to run out of things to do when taking care of a two-year old!  Each day, I’d choose one event that would take about an hour to complete.  Then we’d head off and take 3-4 hours to get it done.  Young kids are some of the least productive people on the planet but that’s ok.

Forget about work and training. My family arrived the day AFTER my event and I took the week off training and coaching.

Remember that the greatest gift of kids is their ability to bring love into the world. When I view my daughter as a little teacher helping me learn to chill out, everything is easier. 

Being loved by a little person makes me happy and that’s enough of a benchmark.

For those of you with experience with Eastern Philosophy, you might recognize the ‘zen’ of two-year olds: respect life, be love and enjoy the journey… easier said than done!

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The Role of Technology

Life without technology is much more serene, but I get lost frequently.

At the beginning of the week, it was embarrassing to realize that I could barely think without my phone.  

Truth be told, I borrowed Monica’s phone most days to avoid getting completely lost or to google information on my planned activity with Lex.

My main insight was that there’s nothing wrong with living via technology but I would like to try living my life more with my key three (Monica, the kids and training in nature).  To dial down technology, I need to make changes:

• Check the news once per day
• Remove Twitter from my iPhone.
• Check Facebook and Twitter 1-2x per day.
• Turn my phone off when I’m not using it.

My goal is to see if I can pull this off until my birthday in late-December.  

The above seems simple but will be tough for me – I was checking my phone a couple times per hour and physically repetitive habits run deep.

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Noise, Serenity and Happiness