Tom Geutzke
7 Happy Habits for 2021
Speaker Tom Geutzke discussed with the club about happiness and 7 happy habits to start for 2021. In a study conducted over the summer of 2019, it said that Americans are the unhappiest they've been in over 50 years. Happiness is an inside job, meaning that each one of us can create our own happiness. Tom discussed how we each tend to think that it is up to someone to bring us happiness. Our mindset is what we think about.
Tom shared 7 researched-based habits to help create and maintain happiness. They each come from positive psychology, neurology, and sociology. Here are the 7 habits with a small summarization:
- Connect Happy - Human connection is so important. With COVID it is hard to have human connections. So we have to work hard to keep connections. Connect with those will help and maintain your happiness. \
- Choose Happy - The power of choice is powerful so the decisions we make can either be positive or negative. It is up to us to choose something that will make us happy.
- Think Happy - What our brain attends to becomes our reality. We set ourselves up for what our mindset will be for the day. If we are frustrated we will naturally find reasons to be frustrated. If we want to be happy we will find reasons to be happy.
- Focus Happy - When life gets a little ruff, just really focusing on that happiness. Focus on what you can control. What is outside of our control are other people's opinions, other people's mistakes, adversity, other people's feelings, and other people's actions. We can control our effort, attitude, behavior, and actions.
- Smile & Laugh - They is research being conducted on how much smiling and laughing effects a person. Smiling and laughing can physically benefit you. It helps the heart by improving blood flow, helps relieve pain by releasing endorphins, eases feelings of depression and anxiety by reducing stress hormones, helps burn calories by raising the heart rate, and helps the immune system by boosting infection-fighting antibodies.
- Start Happy - If we start our day happy it can lead the rest of our day to be happy as well. The first thing we typically do is reach for our phone in the morning or turn on the morning news. These sources can sometimes have a negative impact. What we put in our brain in the morning has a lasting effect. Tom shared that 3 minutes of positivity in the morning can cause 8 more hours of positivity. Vice versa with negativity.
- Gratitude - Find ways to be happy about what you have. Some examples include gratitude and happiness jars, think about 3 things that make you happy, and think about 3 things you are grateful for. We should see the beauty around us both in nature and people and be happy.
To conclude his presentation, Tom had a squeeze the day challenge. Where you can conduct 7 happy habits in 7 days. Lastly, he emphasized creating more happiness in our lives.
Announcements
Above & Beyond - This is a way to honor teens for going above and beyond and accomplishing great things. This year it will be a virtual event. They will be starting an organizational meeting this coming Tuesday 11/19 after Rotary. Looking for people to join the group and help recognize the students.
Rotary Cares - This about club members supporting club members. If something thing is happening with a Rotarian and you see a need for help Jane McGinty is the point person and others can be it as well.
A New Club - The Rotary Club of Network for Empowering Women - has formed in our district. There will be a virtual charter event for the club on Sunday, January 17, 2021, at 10:00 AM CDT. Club members are encouraged to join the event. REGISTER HERE.
Rotary Rocks the Prairie - The fundraiser was announced that there will be a chance for people to attend a live performance. Aaron Orwick shared how he reached out to his family who will attend the show. We still encourage everyone to get 4 people to attend.
Happy Fives
Russ Henrikson - He was happy to have his daughter married on December 31st.
Josh Swanson - Josh was excited to share that he was able to visit the K-2 students who were returning to school. He was happy to see all their smiles as they return back. Partnered with the city and the Eden Prairie High School has been running a vaccination site to help get emergency responders vaccinated.
Jay Simpson - Jay was happy to announce that his son was married on December 23rd.
PG - PG was excited and grateful to be elected to the city council.