Book Review: Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar

Meetingmax’s February book of the month was Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar.

Ben-Shahar teaches that the key to being ‘Happier’ is to find activities that provide us both present and future happiness; ultimately to live for today and for tomorrow. He teaches us to incorporate pleasure (present benefit) and meaning (future benefit) into ones life.

Below are a few of the different issues covered in the book:

Happiness is the ultimate currency. Most people mistake money as the ultimate currency when in fact we seek money so we may buy items or experiences which we believe will bring us happiness.

There are four basic archetypes of happiness:

1. Rat Racer: The rat racer is constantly chasing happiness. They believe that sacrificing their own happiness in the present will result in future happiness.
2. Hedonist: The hedonist lives for present happiness without care for future gain.
3. Nihilist: The nihilist has given up on happiness. They don’t believe they can find it in the present or the future.
4. Happiness: Happiness requires that one live both for today and tomorrow, present and future benefit.

Happiness and pleasure are not the same thing. Pleasure is the experience of present gain; meaning comes from having a sense of purpose from the future benefit of our actions. Experiencing pleasure will not bring you happiness. You need to derive both present (pleasure) and future benefit (meaning) to be truly happy.

Gratitude is of utmost importance. Shahar suggests keeping a gratitude journal and writing down five things each day that you are grateful for.

Some examples from the Meetingmax staff on activities that bring them happiness are:

• Running
• Learning new languages
• Working on creative projects
• Computer programming (luckily from our IT guy!)
• Playing sports
• Training for a triathlon
• Running the newspaper in college

The Meetingmax team highly recommends Happier. Overall it scored an 8.9/10 on a scale where 1 equals a book with little value one would not wish to read again and 10 equals a fantastic book with the ability to grow an individual personally, professionally or both.

For more from Ben-Shahar, check out this article where he answers the following questions. 

1. What can people do each day to be happier? 
2. How can we cultivate gratitude? 
3. What happiness techniques are particularly important in today’s world?

Meetingmax Culture - Pinterest

Our company culture stems from our six core values... 

          1) Create Success 

          2) Do More With Less 

          3) Make It Fun 

          4) Exceed Expectations 

          5) Nurture All Relationships

          6) Continually Grow 

Make It Fun - Barista Mondays! MMX employees alternate playing the barista on Monday mornings, when coffee is most needed :) 

Continually Grow - Read as often as you can. As a team we read one new book per month with the intention that it will grow us either personally or professionally.

Make It Fun - Slipper Optional Policy. Four Seasons Resort & Hotel slippers provided to all staff and guests of the office. 

Make It Fun - Alternating Staff iPod Days

Make It Fun - Martini Fridays

Make It Fun - Out of the box day. Occasionally we take our laptops and work in a new environment outside of the office for the day. Hopefully this beach shot is a predictor of our next destination!

Continually Grow - The MMX team is currently training for the 2012 Vancouver Sun Run.

Create Success - Each employee has their own personal "Vision Board" in the office.

Go Green with Meetingmax: Online Reservation System Helps To Reduce The Environmental Impact Of Your Events.

The February issue of SportsEvents Magazine ran a special feature titled Walk the Talk – Event Planners Stand Up For Green Events. Meetingmax Systems user, Krista Flanagan of Centurion Cycling, shared the many ways in which she is making her events green, including using our online lodging program.

Krista uses her Meetingmax online reservation system to minimize paper use associated with the reservation process. With previous events that she worked with, she would print off 2,000 hotel request forms so that attendees could put in their requests for rooms for the next year's event. They would then fax/mail forms back and forth to the hotels and event organizer. And finally they would print off confirmations and mail them to all the guests. As this is now all done online within the system by registrants themselves, they save a considerable amount of paper and the emissions associated with mailing.

Krista also negotiates hotel room blocks at hotels that are closest to the venue helping to reduce carbon emissions associated with travel to and from the event venue.

Additionally the Meetingmax System allows planners to save all registrant and hotel information from past events in the system, as well as the personal records of attendees. With this information stored safely in the system there is no requirement to print off reports.

For more ideas on how to make your events green check out the full article above.

Welcome Omaha

We want to welcome the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau to Meetingmax.

Lindsey Creath, Convention Services Manager at the Omaha CVB told us that they were impressed at how flexible and user friendly our software is. 

“With Meetingmax we will be able to efficiently offer planners an easy way to manage their housing,” Creath said. “It will allow us to offer an additional service and remain a competitive destination. Also, we don’t have to commit to minimum volumes, but we still get a great system to use!”

The CVB has used other systems in the past but found that our system was compatible for both convention groups and team events. Meetingmax’s sub block feature will make the lives of team administrators much easier.  They can now reserve a room block and have athletes register and pay for their room themselves within that block.

We look forward to working together!

For anyone looking for a venue in the Midwest, be sure to check out visitomaha.com