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I’ve been on a kick lately of having fun   –  with a purpose.

I tell my audiences  that happiness is an attitude.   It’s a choice.   But an often neglected portion of the happiness equation goes beyond attitude, mind-set and emotion.   To do it right— to be your happiest— you also have to get physically involved with creating some joy for yourself.

In other words, to be happy you’ve got to DO something.  Maybe it’s goof with skate shoes and your kids.  Or play a harmless joke on your work mates.  Or take piano lessons.  Or maybe it’s to take responsibility for making somebody feel like a million bucks and act on it.

I’m lucky because I have a ton of hobbies that bring me passion and joy.  One of my latest is Heelys.   I’m tellin’ ya, put some wheels on your shoes and go shopping and … BAM!  You’re in a great mood.

Proof? I’ve got it baby!  Check out this short video of my kids and I breaking every rule in the how-to-behave-in-a-store book.

I challenge you:  find something today that gets YOU involved in creating your own joy.  Build something. Plant something. Play with something.  heelysAnd then…. Do it.  Notice your mood change?  Guaranteed or your money back.

Leave a comment and let me know if you agree.

Do you agree with me that happiness at work is related to excellence at work?  Do you need a speaker to help your organization to get there too?  I’d love to work with you.  It will be fun.   Promise.  Heelys optional.  Go to the contact page now.

Cheers.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Passionate Player, Adult Fan of Heelys

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What are you doing today to create fun and joy in your life. I speak to groups as a motivational speakerall across the country about how happiness at work is directly related to a better work product. And I talk a lot about fun. But in this short video I talk about DOING stuff that is fun and why that’s important.

Check out this short video:

My point? My point is that the best attitude in the world is not enough. We have to actually DO something to create joy for ourselves. For you this might mean anything from walking your dog to playing a practical joke at work or sports or collecting stamps. Whatever. My point is that you need to actually do something. Go somewhere. Get physically involved.

Your life at work is never going to be great until you have a great life at home. (Yup, all that “work-life balance” stuff actually works.) motivational speakers ski for a reason

So get out there, find some passion and follow it. One of my passions just happens to be skiing. If that works for you, great! If not, no biggie. Just find something and….. DO IT!

So… I dare you. Comment. What ARE you going to do today to make your life better? Do you agree that happiness at home leads to a better quality of work life too? Leave a comment.

Cheers,

Brad Montgomery
One of Colorado’s Motivational Speakers, Skiers, Crappy Film-maker.

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One of my best pals from way back when (we both had hair) is Craig Young.  He left a hefty salary by jumping off the corporate ship to follow his passion.  He was a big deal at Accenture and decided that he wanted more.  He wanted to be a high school teacher.   I speak pretty often…. Craig speaks to high school “audiences” every day.

In this photo, Craig looks like he is a little bit cazy, a little bit sick — and a little bit scared.   I’m totally jealous of him.  Here’s what he said about this flight:  

In Sept. I had a chance to go on a parabolic flight to experience weightlessness – the same type of flights that NASA uses to train astronauts for weightlessness.  This week, I finally received the photos and videos from the event.  Attached is one of the better photos of me being “weightless”. 

The weightless flight was a deal for science and math teachers sponsored by Northrop Grumman (a CA defense contractor).  Their goal is to inspire teachers who can then inspire students to pursue math and science…and turn into nice little engineers working for defense contractors.  Anyway, I applied in the spring and found out in August that I’d been selected.  We
got together in early Sept to design some experiments showing the effects of weightless.  The flight was on Sept 18.  It was basically an all-day event, but the flight was only 90 minutes.  We flew out of San Jose over the Pacific Ocean.  Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the plane started doing these crazy roller-coaster-like hills – climbing at a 50-degree angle then putting the engines in neutral and letting Earth’s gravity pull us through a parabola.  We did that 15 times and got about 20 seconds of weightlessness each time.    It was a phenomenal experience!

My teammates and I had planned only 4  experiments we wanted to perform, thinking that it would take a while to get acclimated and to collect our wits.  I never collected my wits!  Every time we went into freefall, I got giddy and could barely concentrate on what we were doing.  It was such a different sensation than I had imagined.  We did get our experiments completed but the video I took was a complete waste – fingers in the way, pictures of feet, backs, floors, ceilings – everything but the experiments.  Luckily, the company had a professional photographer and mounted video cameras so we got some great footage from them.  As I said
before, if I needed another reason to be a science teacher, that was it.

My students all got 2 days of weightlessness discussion – 1 the day after the flight and another when the videos came in.  I also got to keep the flightsuit so I wore that both days to school and on Halloween.

My pal Craig worked hard, made extremely tough choices, and in the end found his passion;  he’s found his home. 
 
I’m proud of him…and am inspired by him.   But never more than when he sent this photo.     

My point: Are you following your passion?  Are you making sure that fun is driving you?  That you are driving fun?   Can you find “great reasons” to be doing what you are doing?
 

Way to go Craig!
 
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Educator, Fan of Folks with Passion
PS.  I want a flight suit too, but I’m afraid I’d barf all over the place on my way to earning it.
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