So I decided to write today about pretending to be happy. It is the perfect melding of what I’ve been encountering in my strategy sessions with people this week, and video #3 in my Know Your Profit Style series – Accepting Annie. So then I went online to find a quote, as I often do, and all I could find was this:

Align and Profit | Darla LeDoux

Ha! How perfect. We live in a culture that idealizes putting on a happy face and denying our emotions so as not to make others uncomfortable. That’s considered “strong.” And that is why Accepting Annie is actually pretty successful and revered in our culture… she motors through. But she is unfulfilled on the inside, and the worst part is she doesn’t know it! She goes around as a one-woman show, crossing things off her to-do list, and essentially missing the point. (Well, watch today’s video…)

I’ve been there. And our self-help aisle isn’t very helpful, because it is easy to reinforce the idea that we should “think positive” when what might really help is to get damn pissed off, or ruffle feathers with our Truth.

So, why is it so important to recognize that people pretend to be happy? Well, first, ask yourself if you’re pretending to be happy so you can deal with what is so. Second, realize that your prospects 9 times out of 10 are going to tell you things are OK, or working. They have accepted that having less than what they really want is OK, and they don’t realize they are settling. Sometimes, our culture considers that the more pain we endure, the better person we are (see said quote) so people actually love up their pain.

So watch the Accepting Annie video and ask yourself – is she happy or is she putting on a happy face?

 

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