An accidental phone call, led me down an interesting path this week. I spoke to someone after a gap of about 10 years, let’s call him Mr. Writer. In ten minutes or so we caught up on bits and pieces of each other’s lives. He was surprised to hear from me. I was truthful and told him I had dialed his number by mistake. We had a good laugh and left each other feeling better for having shared those ten minutes together.
This got me thinking. In the early weeks of the lockdown, I had enrolled in the Yale course on happiness. I enjoyed the journey it took me on and some of the simple and powerful insights it gave me about being happy. Putting theory into practice however had taken a back seat. My accidental encounter with Mr. Writer brought one of those learnings back into focus.
Social connections are a powerful happiness pill. In the course, Laurie Santos, the professor, walked me through various research studies showing the power of social engagement. Engagement, even with strangers and acquaintances, improves our happiness quotient.
With so many work calls through the day, I had stopped connecting with friends just to get some ‘me time’ in the late evenings. However my mistaken misdial put me back on the right path again. Not only am I now speaking to my friends again, I have a new formula that I’m experimenting with. I pick a letter from the English alphabet for the day and then scroll through my phone contacts and call someone who is least expecting to hear from me. I have no idea how long this phase will last. But for now. Tring Tring and off I go in search of old-new connections. One call lasted an hour and another a few minutes. It’s like Forrest Gump said “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” Try it out. Pick a letter. Press the dial button and let the oxytocin flow, you never know where that conversation may go. It just may be the key to A-Z of happiness and wellbeing…
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A trusted coaching and communications professional, Nikhil Dey is a certified life and leadership coach (International Coach Federation - ICF). Nurturing talent and helping clients achieve their goals is what makes him happy. He loves learning from students of communication, teaching courses and guest lecturing at various educational institutions. When he is not working you will find him on the tennis court or out for long walks with his family and four legged friends.
Previously he has held senior leadership positions at Weber Shandwick and Genesis BCW.
He can be reached on twitter @deydreaming
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