An interesting lesson occurred last week when I went to my bank’s ATM drive-up. The ATM malfunctioned and not only did it fail to cough up some cash, it swallowed my ATM card. I went inside the branch and told a woman sitting at a desk what had happened. She said they only collect whatever is in the ATM twice a day, at 9AM and 3PM. It was 9:20AM, and since I was busy for the rest of the day, I asked her if it was possible for someone to pull out my ATM card in that moment. Her reply was negative. So I approached the teller’s window to complete the cash withdrawal. Just on a whim, I recounted my tale of loss to the teller, and she asked, “Would you like me to check the ATM and see if I can retrieve your card?” “Hmmm, is the earth round?” I said quietly, tongue-in-cheek. She smiled, and within a minute the card was back in my possession.

In last week’s blog, I wrote about “Gross National Happiness” being the measuring stick of choice for the Himalayan country of Bhutan.

In a recent article about happiness, noted corporate trainer Brian Tracy wrote about 3 myths concerning the subject. As one who recognizes and admires Brian as a thought leader and an inspiration to many, I want to comment on his myth #1:

“The first myth about happiness is that it’s not legitimate or correct for you to put your happiness ahead of everyone else… Throughout my life, I’ve met people who’ve been very adamant about stating that happiness is something that you may or may not get from life, but it’s not a goal or objective by itself…These people say that it’s more important to make other people happy than to make yourself happy… Of course, this is nonsense…The fact is that you cannot give away to anyone else what you don’t have for yourself. The very best way to assure the happiness of others is to be happy yourself and then to share it with them… The human condition is that of natural emotional peace and happiness.”

“Mr. Parsons, even in prosperity, always fretting. Mr. Potts, in the midst of poverty, ever laughing. It seems then, that happiness in this life rather depends on internals than externals…” – Ben Franklin

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan coined the phrase “Gross National Happiness” as a way to define quality of life within a more holistic paradigm. Like most moral ideals, it is easier to state than to define. Nevertheless, it serves as a unifying vision for Bhutan’s planning process to balance material and spiritual development of its people, unlike Gross National Product, which only offers a materialistic construct of economic growth.