Originally published on Advisor Perspectives, August 29, 2018

Happiness is an important subject for everyone, but it’s often overlooked by advisors.

I like researching and writing about it. It helps me achieve a higher level of personal happiness. My articles on this subject are well-received because many of us neglect our own happiness issues. It’s difficult to imagine how you can be effective with your clients unless you understand their level of happiness and how you can positively impact it.

Your role

You play an important role in contributing to the happiness of your clients. Research indicates that overall happiness, a sense of well-being and self-esteem, are influenced by our sense of financial control and not by how much we deposit in the bank every month.

It should be comforting for you to know that, by giving your clients a sense of control over their financial situation (which occurs when they have a sound financial plan), you increase their level of happiness.

Improving your level of happiness

While improving the level of your clients’ happiness is rewarding, don’t neglect your own. I meet with hundreds of advisors every year. While some appear happy and content, others are highly stressed and anxious.

Much has been written about how to improve happiness, including an entire section in my Smartest Sales book.

I researched this subject extensively when I wrote my book. What struck me was the level of control we have over our happiness. Here are some tips I found helpful in my own life:

• The daily practice of expressing gratitude
• A focus on health through diet and exercise
• Planning positive experiences far in advance
• Going for a long walk outdoors for at least 20 minutes a day
• Daily meditation

Perhaps most important was making happiness an agenda item and prioritizing it every day.

New research

Happiness can be an elusive goal, with a whack-a-mole quality to achieving it. Sometimes just when I have my happiness under control, something crops up and drags me down.

New research may provide the answer. The well-credentialed authors of that study explained something I’d personally experienced many times. When I resolve one problem in my life, another one crops up. This never-ending litany of troublesome issues impairs my happiness.

The authors explain this phenomenon is called “concept creep.” When we believe we have solved a problem, we change the rules and redefine the problem so it continues to exist.

The lead researcher, David Levari, a postdoctoral researcher in Psychology at Harvard University, provided this example. If you are part of a neighborhood watch group that has identified and reported suspicious conduct, you would think once this conduct has abated, your job would be done.

Not so. Levari says the brain doesn’t rest on its success. Instead, it searches for more trivial conduct (like jaywalking) it can report as suspicious.

The brain redefines the problem instead of considering it resolved. When you do this, you don’t get the feeling of satisfaction from solving an issue, because it’s become never-ending.

Levari suggests a coping mechanism for dealing with this tendency by the brain to make you feel stressed and anxious. In the neighborhood watch example, he advises writing down a list of legitimate issues of concern. Once that list is exhausted, recognize the tendency of your brain to engage in “concept creep,” revisit that list and stick to it.

I’m going to try it.