25 mantras to increase your Happiness Quotient

What does happiness mean to you? Can happiness ever be achieved? Why is the pursuit of happiness important in the corporate world?

If these questions are bothering you then perhaps Dr Rekha Shetty's latest book Innovate Happily could help you find some answers.

In this book Dr Shetty, through a series of analytical and self-actualisation exercises, shows you how to innovatively increase your Happiness Quotient.

Here is an excerpt from the book on how to Innovate Happily.

1. Less cars, more stars.

2. For all problems: Analyse men, material, machinery, methods, markets and money. The 6M is a template and a blueprint to think ideas through.

3. Do not be afraid to ask questions even if it makes you look ignorant – nobody is expected to know everything.

4. 'Happy communities can happen only when people stop being selfish and start working together to solve everyone's problem'.

5. 'Vasudeva kutumbam, or the whole world is one family

6. More health preservation centres must be created. Children should study the science of life and well-being as part of their school syllabus.

7. The core value is that nothing in the world is permanent or lasting. Everything is changing, momentary and unpredictable.

8. Don't become a victim of hurry sickness. Wait till the soul catches up with your body.

9. Innovation is about transformation. Imagine a block of ice. It is cold, solid, and transparent. But it is not a block of ice forever. It melts and flows across boundaries. If you heat it, it boils; keep heating, it gets airborne by becoming steam. Add pressure and it can rotate turbines to generate power.

10. Transformation is what happens to a drop of water when it is touched by the magic of sunlight. It becomes a rainbow. It is what happens to a seed when it starts the journey to become a mighty banyan tree.

11. Innovation is taking interesting ideas and transforming them into usable solutions for business problems.

12. For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the Universe, Larry Eisenberg quote, CEO of Disney.

13. Every day, each of us should work on how to make things better (MTB), so that we become a nation of problem-solvers rather than a country of problem-creators.

14. The Vedas tell us that the Divine spark dwells in all. This means that within each of us is the Divine spark. One does not have to evolve into a Divine being. One already is.

15. Life is the greatest guru. Learn from it. Get rid of what is not Divine. Just as one has to get rid of all the marble in a block that is not a statue.

16. The Innovation process means

• Problem statement
• Idea generation
• Incubation
• Analysis
• Implementation

17. The restatement of the problem opens up the possibility of new tackling and improved methods.

18. Mindspower tools are particularly useful in cultures where one is taught to defer to elders.

19. Mindspower thinking tools enables you to disagree without being disagreeable.

20. Companies wanting to be innovative need to draw a clear line between thinking and doing.

21. Implementation is possible only with a clear foundation of rational thought and practical application.

22. The greatest paradox is that the biggest risk of all is not to be innovative, never to do anything new, even at the experimental level.

23. Implementation involves choosing the final solution, planning, developing a detailed roadmap, communicating it to the teams and finally acting on the blueprint.

24. The process of incubation enables you to throw off the shackles of conscious thought and float through the unconscious.

25. The new Gross National Happiness (GNH) is being slowly converted into a workable set of standard indicators.