Are you doing enough things in life* that bring a smile to your face? [*substance-free I should add]

Ever watched an uplifting video of someone else achieving something amazing or read some killer hack on how to achieve more, got totally inspired, made a note that you need to change your life and then rolled over and forgot all about it?

I know I sure as hell have 🙈

That’s the thing about relying on constant inspiration; it rarely changes the dial 🫩

Sure goals are amazing, but ultimately they come and go (I mean I’m just about to achieve one of my biggest goals of 2025, buying my dream flat 🏡, but that’ll be done and then what? 🤷🏻‍♂️) and they can only really be a guide to focus your energies.

Goals are the things that set the direction of where you should focus 🎯 (that’s certainly important otherwise you will just drift) but they don’t necessarily give you the motivation to then do the necessary work to achieve the goal.

That’s where consistency comes in 💪.

Fun may be the key to consistency

How can you generate the enthusiasm to be consistent?

Accountability ⚓ is one way, as is gamification 🎮 but there may be an easier way….the simple act of HAVING FUN 😂.

For example, it makes such a difference having a buddy along at networking events because it makes it fun and that’s why I explicitly make fun the main metric in my business.

There is a lot of research into how happier people are more productive, creative and engaged [the keys to effectiveness] so, my belief is, if you can make yourself happier than that can only be a good thing 😊.

In some ways, it’s easier to make others happy (this not only impacts their effectiveness but also has a massive impact on your happiness) and that’s why I am a massive fan of spreading joy as much as possible through my daily actions 🤗.

But, how do you ensure you are happy?

Have more fun is my answer:

• If you’re smiling and laughing while doing something hard 😰, that difficult task doesn’t seem that much of a chore
• If you are smiling and laughing, building up the motivation to even try the difficult thing gets easier
• If you are smiling and laughing, bad news doesn’t seem as bad
• If you are smiling and laughing, you want more so you do more things

The importance of fun in my life

Since starting my business 5 years ago, I’ve come to realise that there are no straight lines 📈 📉.

Building a business is at times:

• like playing a giant game of snakes 🐍 and ladders 🪜 (for every ladder, there’s a snake around the corner to send you back down) or
• like being on one non-stop rollercoaster 🎢 or
• like the story of Sisyphus rolling a boulder up a hill ⛰️

I also realised that this same emotional rollercoaster applies to every other aspect of my life: my dating 💕 (where I’ve had many false starts), my search for a flat 🏡, my fitness 💪, my friendships 🫂, relationships 🤝, my hobbies 🧩, my career 🧑🏻‍🎓, my emotions 🫤 and pretty much everything.

The best way to balance out the rollercoaster, I discovered, is to ensure I am having fun whether I am going through an up or down.

What have the golf balls got to do with it?

Golf 🏌🏻 is a classic example of this rollercoaster in my life; I am actually pretty bad at it (even when there are false dawns) but I am working on it.

In fact this year, I have seen a big improvement in my game (as shown by my most recent 3 rounds) and that’s down to one simple act….I now smile at my golf ball before every shot 😀.

This has a dual purpose:

1. to remind me to keep my head down (crucial for golf) 👇
2. to remind me to enjoy it; I’m there by choice after all ☺️

And you know what; this simple act has taken 5 shots off my game 🙌.

In fact, it’s been so powerful that it’s a trick that I now employ in many other areas of my life; smile more and good things will happen.

• If I’m about to go into a business meeting, I smile to myself
• If I’m going to go on a date, I smile to myself
• If I’m going to go for a tough gym session, I smile to myself
• … And so on

I find I spend a lot of my days smiling now [god knows what people looking at me must think 🤔] but ultimately I don’t care because I am enjoying myself way more and, ultimately, “Why I am I doing these optional things if I’m not having fun?”

How you can have more fun in the difficult tasks

I talk to a lot of people doing difficult things every day; be it building a business, balancing a difficult job with life or conquering some herculean goal.

Many times the person seems really down ☹️ and the thought is always:

“I wonder how different it would be if they were having fun”.

As such, my advice to get more fun into their task is threefold:

1. Can you turn something you already enjoy into a part of the task? Business development is a classic one for me where I turned the simple voice notes 🗣️and catch ups ☕ that I enjoy doing anyway into a the engine for my business
2. Can you buddy up with someone who brings fun/joy into your life to do the task? That’s where finding a gym buddy 🤸‍♂️ comes in handy or doubling up for a boring conference is the key
3. Can you make yourself laugh before you do the task? This is where the smiling at golf balls ⛳ comes to mind or similarly why I often tell myself a joke just before I go and give a big presentation 🃏

So that’s it; go forth and smile more at more things and you may just find that you achieve more, enjoy more and inspire others more 🙌.

I’d Love to hear how you get on 🙂

Faris

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here

Success = IQ x EQ x FQ

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Originally Published on https://farisaranki.medium.com/

Faris Aranki Strategy & Emotional Intelligence

Having spent over 20 years delivering strategic change for the corporate and non-corporate worlds, Faris has experienced first-hand the fine differences between strategic success and failure.
His work has spanned numerous companies (from global behemoths to small start-ups), in numerous countries, across a range of sectors, supporting them all to unlock strategic success.

He came to realize that often what hinders institutions from achieving their goals goes beyond the quality of their strategy; it is their ability to engage effectively with others at all levels and remove barriers in their way. This has led to his passion for improving strategic effectiveness within all businesses and individuals and the foundation of Shiageto Consulting.

Over time, Faris has worked to distill his knowledge of how to solve complex problems in a structured manner combined with his skill on engaging effectively with others and his ability to quickly determine the barriers to a strategy's success. This knowledge has formed the foundation of Shiageto’s workshops, courses and methodologies. Faris believes that any firm or team can adopt these improvements; all it requires is a little of the right support -something Shiageto provides!

On top of leading our business, Faris is now an accomplished speaker and contributor for a variety of outlets.