The GREAT DREAM personal happiness model says there are 10 key things that contribute to happiness that everyone can work on. They spell out the words GREAT DREAM. They are: Giving, Relating, Exercising, Appreciating, Trying out, Direction, Resilience, Emotions, Acceptance and Meaning.
Summary by The World of Work Project
A Podcast
Our podcast exploring happiness is below. It might be of interest:
The GREAT DREAM Personal Happiness Model
The things that make us happy aren’t always the things that we expect. In fact, as the saying goes, it’s often the simplest things that make us happy.
While everyone is different, research has shown that there are 10 things that do consistently contribute towards personal happiness. These factors can be remembers with the mnemonic GREAT DREAM: Giving, Relating, Exercising, Appreciating, Trying out, Direction, Resilience, Emotions, Acceptance and Meaning.
Giving
Doing things for others, caring, contributing and helping people makes us happier and helps us build strong relationships.
At the World of Work Project, we are big believers in the benefits of volunteering and supporting others in your local community. Doing so can lead to large benefits for volunteers, as well as those being helped.
Relating
The second factor in the GREAT DREAM personal happiness model is relating.
Having good relationships and support networks is a powerful contributor to happiness, longevity, health and overall well-being.
Exercising
Exercise improves the body and the mind. It makes us happier, healthier and more balanced. Even simple things like walking more made a difference.
Appreciating
The fourth factor in the GREAT DREAM personal happiness model is appreciating.
Mindfulness, gratitude and awareness of the world around us makes people happier and increases well being. Just stopping and appreciating is all it takes.
Many people try meditation as a way to increase their mindfulness and appreciation. We have produced some guidance on meditation and recorded a series of six guided meditations that might also be of interest. We’ve included the guided meditation on “Joy and Bliss” below:
Trying Out
Learning, mastering and developing new skills helps us feel engaged, motivated and rewarded, all of which help make us happier.
Direction
The sixth factor in the GREAT DREAM personal happiness model is direction.
Working towards stretching but achievable goals is rewarding, motivating, keeps us active, gives us a sense of progress and makes us happy. You can learn more about the power of goals through our posts on goal-setting.
Resilience
Improving our ability to bounce back up when the world knocks us down makes us happier. Our mind-sets and beliefs can help with this. You can read more in our posts on resilience.
Emotions
The eighth factor in the GREAT DREAM personal happiness model is emotions.
Focusing on helpful emotions like gratitude, joy and contentment and the positive things that happen in life helps people be happier. You can learn more about emotions from our posts on emotions and emotional intelligence.
Acceptance
Being yourself and accepting yourself for who you are is a liberating and positive thing to do. It reduces stress and increases well-being.
Meaning
The last factor in The GREAT DREAM personal happiness model is meaning.
Finding purpose or meaning helps people find direction and belonging and gives people something to work towards which increases happiness. Finding meaning in life isn’t always easy, but it’s possible. Learning to understand your personal values might be a good first step.
Learning More
Personal happiness is a fascinating subject. It’s often not the things that we expect which make us happy. It’s worth learning more about our self-talk, the power of positive thinking and the concept of eudaimonia.
Luckily, there’s lots we can do to improve our happiness, if we’re willing to slow down and put some effort in. We mentioned meditation already. And resilience clearly contribute, as does learning more about some types of stress. These five simple things you can do to increase your wellbeing might also be of interest.
Our podcast on stress buckets and reducing stress is below. It too might be of interest.
The World of Work Project View
This is a great list of things that everyone can reflect on and which can help people improve their happiness and well-being. There is nothing revolutionary in here, but there is nothing revolutionary about happiness and wellbeing either.
We believe that many people would benefit from talking some time to think about the ten points in the GREAT DREAM model, ask themselves some questions and make a few simple decisions about what they could do differently that could help increase their well-being and happiness.
One other thing we’d add, though, is that we think that “happiness” is an elusive goal. In our view, it’s better to aim for contentment and a balanced positive state of being over the course of your lifetime. Happiness as a strong positive state, in our opinion, cannot be sustained. In fact, we think you need the downs in life to provide the springboards for the ups.
