THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, PEACE AND TRANSFORMATION

If I were to interview organizational consultant colleagues, they would say that mission embodied companies are the most likely to succeed. Many consultants write about the value of aligned personal and organizational values. Most consultants know of the gap between living personal values and the organization’s values in the workplace.

We are living at a time that’s vital to our global family’s sustainability. We need to heal the splits between our core right brain values and our actions. Happiness is a core value of the United States Constitution. Many of us now know that the key to happiness lies in manifesting our core values of peace, love, joy, and compassion into our lives and the world. Yet, there is a huge split in we Americans’ ability to manifest equality and happiness for all.

            “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
             they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
             among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Many Americans say that peace of mind is a core value. Auto and health care insurance; estate, auto sales and pet sitting advertising capitalize on this in their slogans. Yet, the USA does not have a track record of demonstrating peaceful actions and relations. We don't treat everyone in the USA as if they have a right to pursue freedom or happiness.

The Huffington Post wrote a recent article, “Violent Deaths More Common In U.S. Than Any Other Wealthy Nation Report,” finding that “homicide and suicide together account for about a quarter of the years of life lost for U.S. men compared to those in peer countries.” Poverty is another factor in American violent deaths. Alcohol related accidents and drug abuse are others.

           Other Statistics of incongruence with American Values of Peace and Happiness
          1. USA: Highest crime rate of any wealthy nation.
          2. USA: Residents say they love animals and yet consume one-sixth of the
              global population of them. 

3. Most surprising is the Global Peace Index 2012. The USA ranks low on the list.

        

It’s striking that, ranked at #88, Americans haven’t yet demonstrated inner peace translating to world peace statistics. Yet, you cannot be committed to peace, joy and happiness while engaged in practices, images, language, thoughts, values, mindsets, policies and decisions that promote violence.

Physician Gary Slutkin returned from a decade of treating diseases in Africa. When he returned to American, ready to rest from epidemic deaths, he discovered America was not exempt from the scourge of brutal disease. He encountered gun violence that followed patterns of infectious disease. He rolled up his sleeves and went to work.


Americans can join Dr. Slulkin and others who are helping the USA and the world align their core values and manifest them into peace and happiness. Otto Scharmer writes:

           What's being born is...something that we can feel in many places across Planet 
           Earth. This future is not just about firefighting and tinkering with the surface 
           of structural change. It’s not just about replacing one mindset that no longer 
           serves us with another. It’s a future that requires us to tap into a deeper level
           of our humanity, of who we really are and who we want to be as a society. It
           is a future that we can sense and actualize by shifting the inner place from 
           which we operate.

We can shift into love, harmony, joy and compassion. We can find freedom for all. There is growing value in our earth’s sustainability.

It is up to all of us to align our core values with our life practices. I consider this essential and noble work. It’s money well spent. We can close the gap between constitutional declarations, organizational missions, and personal values.

Reader, do you want genuine happiness? Are you willing to invest your life’s energy into creating it for you...and the world?