Pursuit of happiness

I've had a few light bulb moments today, after a really enriching vocational day with Nikolaj Dalsgaard, from AS3 Employment.

Much of the discussion throughout the day was about the company and the work they do - providing job guidance and support for the unemployed - but towards the end, our conversation digressed ... which leads me to this post.

Did you know Denmark has been ranked as the world's happiest country? They received the highest 'life evaluation score' in the UN's World Happiness Report, but why, exactly are they so happy? Here is what I think (bear with me!!)

Nikolaj today introduced me to the philosophies of a Danish lady named Anne Skare Nielsen, a 'futurist' who describes a 'mega trend' or paradigm shift that sees more value being placed on life fulfillment rather than career progression.

She argues that the future is about doing things better, originally and fulfilling our potential rather than sitting in the same "boring job, with a boring manager, watching crap PowerPoint slides and failing to question the meaning of what we are all doing".

In a nutshell, to me, she is imploring people to seek fulfillment, to find happiness in what they do. Basic principle, but how many people actually do this?

I feel as though this is actually more common than we think here is Denmark, which could be one of the reasons the Danes are the happiest people in the world! Yes, they pay 50, sometimes 60 per cent in tax, but out of this comes free health care, free schooling, free university and payments, no matter what your parents earn, throughout your studies. It gives people the freedom to focus their studies and careers on what they love to do, not what is going to make them the most money (as at the end of the day, it mostly goes to tax!)

This might go a long way towards explaining why we seem to have met so many passionate and driven people on our trip so far, and why we are all feeling so inspired just by being here.

Finally, how could Denmark not be the happiest country in the world when one of their icons is a simple toy called the Hoptimist, whose sole purpose is to make people smile... This one is coming home with me as a reminder of the many positive lessons I am learning and, of course, to keep me smiling!