Mio Seamder is the Founder and Chief Happiness Officer at Recipe For Happiness, her life and corporate coaching business which is based on a huge passion for helping people achieve what they really want in their life. Mio hosts a great podcast on her website and produces HappyMAG.

Your business is called Recipe For Happiness - so what is happiness and have you really got the recipe?

Happiness is a subjective sense of well-being. By nature, it is subjective…and everyone perceive or feel happiness differently. So there is no ready made one tablet fits all solution. However, people are happy if they are living according to their values and perceiving fair balance between what they are putting in and what they are getting out in all areas of their life. In short, we feel uncomfortable and unhappy when we do not perceive fair balance. The only problem is that many of us are not clear about our own values, or let limiting beliefs dictate so that you give up on living according to values. Also, we can be very biased and our perception can be far from objective – so that we can feel unsatisfied, unhappy, ripped off or feel resentment when looked at the situation more objectively, there really is no need to feel that way. Life Coaching can assist people to increase their self-awareness, clarify their values, identify vision, set appropriate goals and to keep focused and motivated to achieve those goals and ultimate vision – leading to increased sense of well-being and happiness in general.

What is the best perk of being the Chief Happiness Officer of Recipe for Happiness?

The fact I believe in what I do – there is intrinsic motivation and huge personal satisfaction. Beside that, being my own boss provide me with the flexibility that I want to ensure I have work/life balance.

What are some of the things entrepreneurs can do to make sure that we have a happy and motivated company?

There are many things companies can do to create happy workplace where employees are motivated.
The most important thing would be the commitment from the management (if you are an entrepreneur, then it would be YOU). The management needs to be totally committed to workplace well-being and happiness. And yes, it starts with YOU – you need to be committed to being happy and well. Walk the talk before implementing anything or it will not have maximum positive impact Other tips I can provide would be to align company vision with employee’s personal life vision and to provide work/life balance.

Lots of people decide to leave a job to start their own business so that they can be happier because they are their own boss, does it work?

It can work for many, but it does not work for many at the same time. It all depends on how realistic expectation about being own boss is. You firstly need to know what makes you happy and what you think you will gain by being own boss and make sure that there is congruence. You then need to do a reality check to ensure your expectations are realistic and achievable. Just beware – what you think will make you happy does not necessarily make you happy in reality.

It is also important that you put in place policies and procedures that will get you what you want. For example, I have a policy of no more than twice a week outside hour commitments (meetings, coaching sessions with a client, attending seminars and workshops etc.). Outside hour means before 9am or after 5pm weekdays and all weekends. This ensures that I keep work/life balance and also forces me to prioritise my commitments, assess importance based on longer term goals rather than short term or emotional/impulsive decision making. I also affiliate with other coaches and have always ensured that I have a network of experts who can assist me if I wanted to have days off or go on holidays.

When I last spoke with you your goal was to make the town of Geelong in Australia the happiest place in the world. Why is that your goal and are we there yet?

Well…I love Geelong! And this is my home now…this is where my son was born and Geelong will be his hometown forever…and besides…we live here. Why wouldn’t we want where we live to be the happiest place in the world???????? It is that simple for me J In economic terms, and for the businesses, it is of course beneficial to have Geelong the happiest place in Australia, too. Happy place to live will attract and retain more people to the region, and happy workplace will attract skilled people to the region – all good for the economy. With good strategic plans for growth in different areas of Geelong, with consultation with residents, I think Geelong can grow and prosper and at the same time, avoid becoming a mini-Melbourne and still retain the friendly country feel that makes Geelong so special.

You’re the guru on happiness so I can’t let you go without telling us the bottom line - does money make us happy?

There has been a big interest in finding the answer to your question, and there have been many research conducted internationally. The studies indicate that money does affect our level of happiness in that we tend to be happier if we are not living in poverty (surprise!). However, once we reach the level of comfortable living (as in not living in poverty), then the positive impact money has on our happiness diminishes. Rich people are not happier than people on average income. So…there you go!

One interesting research…several studies have found that employees who felt they were being paid “too much” were actually less motivated and showed less satisfaction and decreased level of happiness compared to employees who were paid less but felt they were being paid “fairly”. Isn’t that interesting? It is all matter of perception…That balance mentioned in the first question is very important!!! So make sure you are compensating your employees “fairly”!

Thanks for the interview Mio. You can visit Mio on her site at Recipe For Happiness.

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Posted on July 11th, 2007 by Ross